A Crown of Lights

Judith Prosser’s head turned slowly until her eyes locked on Merrily’s.

‘Had you now?’

‘She was referred to me by a nurse at Hereford Hospital, after her sister died there. I do... counselling work, in certain areas.’

‘Didn’t come to the funeral, though, did she?’

‘She’s disappeared,’ Merrily said. ‘She spent some days here and now she’s disappeared. The police are worried about her safety.’

‘Oh, her safety? An eyebrow arched under Judith’s stiff, short hair. ‘And what are we to assume they mean by that?’

‘We both know what they mean, Mrs Prosser.’

The sun had given up the struggle, was no more than a pale grey circle embossed on the cloud.

‘Poor Barbara,’ Judith said.

Merrily did some thinking. While she hadn’t come up here to discuss Barbara and Menna, as soon as the conversation had been diverted away from Ellis himself, Judith Prosser had become instantly more forthcoming.

‘Barbara told me you used to write to her.’

‘For many years. We were best friends for a time, as girls.’

‘So you know why she left home.’

‘Do you?’

‘I know it wasn’t a hydatid cyst.’

‘Ha. Good informants you must have. What else did they tell you?’

‘That you were looking out for Menna, and keeping Barbara informed. Menna was a source of... disquiet... for Barbara. Especially after their mother died.’

‘Ah.’ Judith Prosser nodded. ‘So that’s it.’ She leaned back with her elbows against the railings. ‘Well, let me assure you right now, Mrs... is it Mrs? Let me assure you emphatically that Mervyn Thomas never touched Menna. I know that, because I warned him myself what would happen to him if he ever did.’

‘But you’d have been just a kid... or not much more.’

‘This was not when Menna was a child. Good heavens, Merv was never a child-molester. He’d wait till they filled out. Ha! No, there was never anything for Barbara to worry about there. Nothing. She could go on living her rich, soft, English life without a qualm.’

‘Hasn’t she been to see you in the past week or so?’

Judith sniffed. ‘I heard she was around, pestering people – including you, it seems. Evidently she couldn’t face me.’

‘Wasn’t it you who told her about Menna’s stroke?’

‘I sent her a short note. Somebody had to.’

‘But not her husband.’

Mrs Prosser smiled and nodded. ‘Let me also tell you, Mrs Watkins, that Jeffery Weal was the best thing that could have happened to Menna. If you knew her – which Barbara, lest we forget, never really did – Menna was a wispy, flimsy little thing. Insubstantial, see, like a ghost. She—Are you all right?’

‘Yes.’ Merrily swallowed. ‘I’m fine. Why was Mr Weal so good for her?’

‘If you knew her, you would know she would always need someone to direct her life. And while he was not the most demonstrative of men, he adored her. Kept her like a jewel.’

In a padded box, Merrily thought, in a private vault.

‘Anyway,’ Judith said, ‘I do hope the Diocese of Hereford is not going to interfere with Father Ellis. He suits this area very well. He meets our needs.’

‘Really? How many other people has he exorcized?’

Judith Prosser sighed in exasperation. ‘As far as local people are concerned, he’s giving back the church the authority it used to have. Time was when we had a village policeman and troublesome youngsters would get a clip around the ear. Now they have to go up before people like my husband, Councillor Prosser, and receive some paltry sentence – a conditional discharge, or a period of community service if they’re very bad. Time was when sinners would be dealt with by the Church, isn’t it? They weren’t so ready to reoffend then.’

‘The way Father Ellis deals with them?’

Judith smiled thinly. ‘The way God deals with them, he would say, isn’t it? Excuse me, I must go back and minister to Mrs Starkey.’

Halfway down the steps, Merrily encountered Gomer coming up. There were now a lot of things she needed to ask him. But, behind his glasses, Gomer’s eyes were luridly alive.

‘It’s on, vicar.’

‘The march?’

‘Oh hell, aye. Tonight. No stoppin’ the bugger now. Somebody been over to St Michael’s, and they reckons Thorogood’s back. En’t on his own, neither.’

Merrily felt dejected. All she wanted was to get home, do some hard thinking, ring the bishop to discuss the issue of internal ministry. She didn’t want to even have to look at Nicholas Ellis again tonight.

‘Bunch o’ cars and vans been arrivin’ at St Michael’s since ’bout half an hour ago. One of ’em had, like, a big badge on the back, ’cordin’ to Eleri Cobbold. Like a star in a circle?’

‘Pentagram,’ Merrily said dully.

‘Ar,’ said Gomer, ‘they figured it wasn’t the bloody RAC.’

‘How’s Ellis reacted?’

‘Oh, dead serious. Heavy, grim – for the cameras. Man called upon to do God’s holy work, kind o’ thing.’

‘Yeah, I can imagine. But underneath...’

‘Underneath – pardon me, vicar – like a dog with two dicks.’

‘I don’t need this,’ Merrily said.

32 Potion

BETTY LEFT MRS Pottinger’s lodge in weak sunshine, wanting nothing more than to collapse in front of that cranky farmhouse stove and pour it all out to Robin.

Except that Robin would go insane.

She called for a quick salad at a supermarket cafe on the outskirts of Leominster. By the time she reached the Welsh border, it was approaching an early dusk and raining and, in her mind, she was back in the shop with Mrs Cobbold and the slender man with the pointed beard.

Oh, good morning, Doctor.

A sharp day, Eleri.

Dr Coll.

She needed to tell somebody about Dr Coll and the Hindwell Trust. She wished it could be Robin. Wished she could trust him not to go shooting his mouth off and have them facing legal action on top of everything else.

The Hindwell Trust, Juliet Pottinger had explained, was a local charity originally started to assist local youngsters from hard-pressed farming families to go on to higher education. To become – for instance – doctors and lawyers, so that they might return and serve the local community.

A local people’s charity.

Juliet Pottinger had come to Old Hindwell because of her husband’s job. Stanley had been much older, an archaeologist with the Clwyd-Powys Trust, who had continued to work part-time after his official retirement. He