In the field next to the church the bonfire grew tall with the wreckage of the storm, and the Fox-Herberts’ hunters were led back to their stables until the fireworks were over.
In the churchyard itself, the plots took on a bedraggled autumnal appearance, except that of Robert Townsend, on which a small rose bush had been planted. At the parochial church council meeting the church warden wanted it minuted that it was a nice idea, when a family moved away and could no longer attend the grave, that they should leave a living memorial of this kind.
Orchard End was still on the market, because the price was too high, people said. But the manor house of Stoneyhaye was to be bought by a conservation trust, a great improvement on the last owners, whose hearts had never been in it.
Those who went to the art exhibition at the central library noticed the portrait of Mrs Keating from Bay Court. Apparently it had attracted a potential buyer, a Mr Bailey, but he’d been disappointed: it was not for sale.
Of course neither of the Keatings were great mixers, though they were devoted to that baby of theirs. She was a strange one, people said. But he was a nice man.
Copyright
First published in 1999 by Hodder and Stoughton
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