Fatal Reckoning_The Judith Pharoah Novels by Ruth Sutton

Author:Ruth Sutton [Sutton, Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 33228383
Publisher: Fahrenheit Press
Published: 2016-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

They followed the hearse from the house in St Bees along the ancient twisting road, under the bright green, leafing trees, beside old pit workings and the long fence of the Marchon plant up to the High Road where the church of St Mary’s stood tall and proud among the houses on the ridge. Smoke and steam from the Marchon stacks streamed across in the southerly breeze, but there were no trees here to bend their branches or offer shade from the sun.

Judith was in the first car behind the hearse with her parents, grandmother Violet and Vince. She was glad that Sam had not come to the house. She didn’t want to face him. As the cortege approached the church all the family looked with astonishment at the cars parked right down the neighbouring streets, the people thronging on to the road ahead of them. ‘Are there lots of people?’ Vince asked. ‘Hundreds,’ said Judith. ‘Look at them all.’ Maggie began to cry again, and John put his arm around her. When the car eased to a halt, John said, ‘Wait. Let them move away a little. The undertakers will know what to do.’

They waited, and stepped from the car into the May sunshine. Maggie hung on to John, and Judith linked arms with her grandmother on one side and her brother on the other as they followed the coffin slowly into the church. Judith kept her head down as she walked. She had no idea who many of the people were and didn’t want to look at them, see their sympathetic faces and their undisguised curiosity. Frank Pharaoh’s death had been the talk of the town since it happened. ‘Why don’t they leave us alone?’ she thought bitterly. Sam was out there somewhere, too, and she especially didn’t want to catch his eye.

The organ droned, a choir of young boys sang, Father Price waited at the altar. They eased into the front pew and the service began. They would be there a while; Maggie had insisted on Mass as well as the funeral service. Judith tried to block it all out, just to focus on helping her grandmother to sit and stand. She didn’t sing, or pray. Vince groped for her hand and squeezed it, but she didn’t look at him. She felt numb, as if this was all a dream and she would wake and Frank would still be hovering on the edge of the family, grumbling and resentful. She’d had no idea about the Frank who had stolen Violet’s pension, slept with a singer, lost money and died on a beach. It was if she were mourning a stranger. When it was time for Mass, she stayed where she was, refusing to stand humbly in line and take the wafer and the wine that meant nothing to her. John looked at her with a silent question, but she shook her head and let Vince squeeze past her to help Violet. People would notice, but she didn’t care.

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