Family Shadows by Rowena Summers & Summers Rowena

Author:Rowena Summers & Summers, Rowena
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Sagas, Romance, Historical, General, Women, Family Life, Marriage & Divorce, Small Town & Rural
ISBN: 9781788634700
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2019-05-08T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

The crowd behind him fell silent, circling at a respectful distance as Walter reached his stepfather. Ran looked up at the white-faced young man and spoke rapidly.

‘He must have gone quickly. There’s no sign of a struggle, and no anguish on his face. The doctor will no doubt have the proper words for it, but I reckon his heart just gave out. There was nothing anybody could have done, Walter.’

He heard the words, but they meant nothing. The only thing he could absorb was that his beloved grandfather was dead. He was consumed by sorrow, and yet, even in the midst of that sorrow, Walter felt a vitriolic anger that was suddenly impossible to contain. He had to blame somebody. He had to hit out, to release the surge of emotions inside him. He found himself shouting.

‘His heart didn’t just give out. It was wrenched out of him by all the upset going on at Killigrew Clay. He gave his life to it, and now it’s killed him.’ He turned round to the hushed crowd and the busily writing reporters, angry tears streaming unheeded down his face. ‘Do you hear me, you bastards? This is what’s left of Hal Tremayne, who always did right by you, and who you were ready to betray by listening to the voice of a harlot.’

There were gasps in the crowd, and Ran pulled at his arm, his voice harsh. He mourned the loss of this good man as much as anybody, and in particular he dreaded the thought of having to tell Bess and Morwen, but he was able to be less emotional than Walter.

‘Be careful what you say, boy. Every word of it is being recorded—’

‘Do you think I give a damn about that? Hal Tremayne never minced his words, and I’m Hal Tremayne’s grandson and proud of it. And nobody tells me what to say and what not to say,’ he snapped, shaking off Ran’s arm.

George Dodds stepped forward, for once having the sense to tactfully intervene, before their young Works Manager made even more reckless remarks in the hearing of the muckraking reporters. He spoke loudly, addressing them all.

‘I’m sure folk always say things they don’t mean on occasions like this, and ’tis best for all on us to overlook it and forget it. But right now, I reckon we’d all like to see Hal Tremayne taken home. If you wish it, Mr Wainwright, I’ll see that a cart is brought down from the works, and me and some of the men ’ould be proud to accompany him home.’

Ran agreed at once, and there were mutters of sympathetic assent from the clayers, before George Dodds turned to Tom Askhew.

‘And if you put Walter’s damning remark about the Pendragon woman in the newspaper, the lot of us will deny it was ever said. Ain’t that right, folks?’

As the clayers became more vocal in defence of their Works Manager, Tom Askhew suddenly found himself being pilloried and heckled on all sides from the more aggressive of them.

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