The Four Last Things. Andrew Taylor

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      ‘Never seen her before. Don’t take it to heart. Nothing personal.’

      Lucy tugged Sally’s arm, and coffee slopped into the saucer. ‘She should go to prison. She’s a witch.’

      ‘She’s done nothing bad,’ Sally said. ‘She’s just unhappy. You don’t send people to prison for being unhappy, do you?’

      ‘Unhappy? Why?’

      ‘Unhappy?’ Derek Cutter appeared beside Stella and ruffled Lucy’s hair. ‘A young lady like you shouldn’t be unhappy. It’s not allowed.’

      Pink and horrified, Lucy squirmed behind her mother.

      ‘Sally tells me this was once the Lady Chapel,’ Michael said, diverting Derek’s attention from Lucy. ‘Times change.’

      ‘We were lucky to be able to use the space so constructively. And in keeping with the spirit of the place, too.’ Derek beckoned a middle-aged man, small and sharp-eyed, a balding cherub. ‘Sally, I’d like you to meet Frank Howell. Frank, this is Sally Appleyard, our new curate, and her husband Michael.’

      ‘Detective Sergeant, isn’t it?’ Howell’s eyes were red-rimmed.

      Michael nodded.

      ‘There’s a piece about your lady wife in the local rag. They mentioned it there.’

      Derek coughed. ‘I suppose you could say all of us are professionally nosy in our different ways. Frank’s a freelance journalist.’

      Howell was shaking hands with Stella. ‘For my sins, eh?’

      ‘In fact, Frank was telling me he was wondering whether we at St George’s might form the basis of a feature. The Church of England at work in modern London.’ Derek’s nose twitched. ‘Old wine in new bottles, one might say.’

      ‘Amazing, when you think about it.’ Howell grinned at them. ‘Here we are, in an increasingly godless society, but Joe Public just can’t get enough of the good old C of E.’

      ‘I don’t know if I’d agree with you there, Frank.’ Derek flashed his teeth in a conciliatory smile. ‘Sometimes I think we are not as godless as some of us like to think. Attendance figures are actually increasing – I can find you the statistic, if you want. You have to hand it to the Evangelicals, they have turned the tide. Of course, at St George’s we try to have something for everyone – a broad, non-sectarian approach. We see ourselves as –’

      ‘You’re doing a fine job, all right.’ Howell kept his eyes on Sally. ‘But at the end of the day, what sells a feature is human interest. It’s the people who count, eh? So maybe we could have a chat sometime.’ He glanced round the little circle of faces. ‘With all of you, that is.’

      ‘Delighted,’ Derek replied for them all. ‘I –’

      ‘Good. I’ll give you a ring then, set something up.’ Howell glanced at his watch. ‘Good Lord – is that the time? Must love you and leave you.’

      Derek watched him go. ‘Frank was very helpful over the conversion of the Lady Chapel,’ he murmured to Sally, patting her arm. ‘He did a piece on the opening ceremony. We had the bishop, you know.’ Suddenly he stood on tiptoe, and waved vigorously at his wife. ‘There’s Margaret – I know she wanted a word with you, Sally. I think she may have found you a baby-sitter. She’s not one of ours, but a lovely woman, all the same. Utterly reliable, too. Her name’s Carla Vaughan.’

      On the way home to Hercules Road, Michael and Sally conducted an argument in whispers in the front of the car while Lucy, strapped into the back seat, sang along with ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ on the stereo. It was not so much an argument as a quarrel with gloves on.

      ‘Aren’t we going rather fast?’ Sally asked.

      ‘I didn’t realize we were going to be so late.’

      ‘Nor did I. The service took longer than I expected, and –’

      ‘I’m worried about lunch. I left it on quite high.’

      Sally remembered all the meals which had been spoiled because Michael’s job had made him late. She counted to five to keep her temper in check.

      ‘This Carla woman, Sal – the child minder.’

      ‘What about her?’

      ‘I wish we knew a bit more.’

      ‘She sounds fine to me. Anyway, I’ll see her before we decide.’

      ‘I wish –’

      ‘You wish what?’

      He accelerated through changing traffic lights. ‘I wish she wasn’t necessary.’

      ‘We’ve been through all this, haven’t we?’

      ‘I suppose I thought your job might be more flexible.’

      ‘Well, it’s not. I’m sorry but there it is.’

      He reacted to her tone as much as to her words. ‘What about Lucy?’

      ‘She’s your daughter too.’ Sally began to count to ten.

      ‘I know. And I know we agreed right from the start we both wanted to work. But –’

      Sally reached eight before her control snapped. ‘You’d like me to be something sensible like a teacher, wouldn’t you? Something safe, something that wouldn’t embarrass you. Something that would fit in with having children. Or better still, you’d like me to be just a wife and mother.’

      ‘A child needs her parents. That’s all I’m saying.’

      ‘This child has two parents. If you’re so concerned –’

      ‘And what’s going to happen when she’s older? Do you want her to be a latchkey kid?’

      ‘I’ve got a job to do, and so have you. Other people manage.’

      ‘Do they?’

      Sally glanced in the mirror at the back of the sun visor. Lucy was still singing along with a robust indifference to the tune, but she had Jimmy pushed against her cheek; she sensed that her parents were arguing.

      ‘Listen, Michael. Being ordained is a vocation. It’s not something I can just ignore.’

      He did not reply, which fuelled her worst fears. He used silence as a weapon of offence.

      ‘Anyway, we talked about all this before we married. I know the reality is harder than we thought. But we agreed. Remember?’

      His hands tightened on the steering wheel. ‘That was different. That was before we had Lucy. You’re always tired now.’

      Too tired for sex, among other things: another reason for guilt. At first they had made a joke of it, but even the best jokes wore thin with repetition.

      ‘That’s СКАЧАТЬ