‘I know I’m wasting my time with the Oxleys, Diane. They’re never going to talk to me. It’s starting to make me feel like a leper.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Fry. ‘The Renshaws will be happy to talk to you. But only about one subject.’
Fry introduced Cooper to Howard and Sarah Renshaw, and he was allowed to sit on the settee next to Edgar the teddy.
‘Can I ask you something that may not appear very relevant?’ said Fry.
Howard Renshaw smiled faintly. ‘We’ve been asked so many questions that we’re hardly in a position to know what’s relevant and what isn’t any more. So go ahead.’
‘You’ve told me about your house in Marple, and how much you liked living there …’
‘Yes.’
‘From what I’ve heard, it sounds a very pleasant area. Nice neighbours, good schools, close to the countryside but near enough to get into Manchester or Sheffield easily. And you said you made lots of friends in the neighbourhood.’
That’s right. So what did you want to ask?’
‘What on earth,’ said Fry, ‘made you move to Withens?’
Sarah laughed. ‘Well, first of all, you have to realize that it was over twenty years ago, when Emma was very small. We were different people then.’
‘We were twenty years younger ourselves,’ said Howard. ‘I think that had a lot to do with it.’
‘Yes, you’re right.’
Howard perched on the arm of Sarah’s chair. Fry expected her
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to touch his arm or even hold his hand. Previously, it would have been the sort of gesture she would have noticed between them. But Sarah didn’t do that. Instead, she rearranged her skirt and held her hands in her lap.
‘The thing about Withens/ she said, ‘is that it’s a kind of separate world on its own. When we saw it, we realized it was nothing like all those nice commuter villages we’d known before. It was much more real. Do you know what I mean?’
‘Not exactly.’
There was something rather spiritual about it. To us, then, it seemed like the sort of place we wanted to bring up a child.’
Fry sneaked a glance at Cooper. His expression told her what she wanted to know. Maybe he was thinking of the Oxleys and having difficulty locating the spirituality.
‘We fell in love with Withens almost as soon as we saw it,’ said Howard.
‘Did you?’
‘It was summer when we first came/ said Sarah.
‘Yes?’
‘It can be a little difficult in the winter.’
Sarah laughed at her husband. ‘We were so innocent, weren’t we? One of the first things we did was take down a big stone wall at the back of the house. It must have been ten feet high, and we couldn’t understand why anybody had built it there. It didn’t seem to have any purpose at all - not something of that height.’
‘We made jokes about how high those nineteenth-century sheep must have been able to jump.’
‘Well, you made jokes,’ said Sarah.
‘As far as we were concerned, a wall that height was just blocking the view up the valley from the house. So we took it down.’
‘We had a much better view/ said Sarah. ‘For a while.’
‘What happened?’
‘Winter came. And it snowed.’
‘We realized why they had built a wall ten feet high/ said Howard. ‘It was because that was the height of the snow drifts. The snow came down the valley on the north winds, and we were the first place to get snowed in that winter. And since we’d taken the wall down, it drifted against the side of the house instead of being stopped by the wall.’
‘The first morning, we had to dig our way out of the door.’
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‘That was a particularly bad winter/ said Howard. ‘But that’s one of the things about Withens - you get the feeling that something like that could happen at any time. It’s as if nature is waiting to give you a sharp little nudge whenever you seem likely to forget about her.’
‘And that’s what makes Withens seem real?’ asked Fry.
‘It’s one of the things/ said Howard. ‘It seemed to us that a child should grow up knowing about nature and the seasons. And I think we were right. Emma is the sort of girl who belongs in the countryside. She has a special relationship with nature.’
‘You said one of the things. What else?’
‘There are the people, of course. They’re wonderful/
Fry stared at him. ‘Sorry. Are we still talking about Withens?’
‘Don’t you think they’re wonderful?’
