Lovers and Newcomers. Rosie Thomas

Prince?’ Selwyn tried out the sound of it, dangerously tipping his chair and steadying himself with one hand burrowed amongst the tea towels and laundry hanging from the bar at the front of the range. ‘This could make us as famous as Sutton Hoo. English Heritage will come and put up a tearoom. There will be boxed fudge, and a coach park.’

      ‘No, there will not,’ Miranda said sharply.

      ‘Amos might decide otherwise. He owns the land, I believe.’ Whisky made Selwyn malicious.

      ‘Shut up, Sel,’ Polly advised.

      Amos got up from his chair and crossed to Miranda’s side of the table. He hovered behind her chair, not quite able to do what he wanted, which was to hug her.

      ‘Mirry, let’s promise each other this minute in front of witnesses that whatever happens, this land business and prince business and the skulls and archaeology drama will not compromise our friendship. I solemnly promise there will be no tearoom, and certainly no fudge. Can you forgive me for happening to own the little acreage under which the bones have turned up?’

      Miranda had never been immune to the force of his deliberate charm.

      She answered solemnly, ‘I promise, too. And there’s nothing to forgive. The prince belongs to Mead itself, regardless of whose bit of turf he’s lying beneath. That’s what Jake would say.’

      ‘I wish he were here, too,’ Amos said. He sketched a sort of kiss in her direction and went back to his seat. Smiling dangerously over the rim of his glass, Selwyn studied him.

      Polly’s mobile rang. She took it out and inspected the display.

      ‘Omie, hello darling. Are you all right?’

      ‘Doesn’t anyone else want another drink?’ Selwyn called out.

      ‘Yes, that’s Dad.’ Polly glanced up. ‘Sorry, all. No, Omie, that’s not what I meant. Of course I’m not apologizing to anyone for you ringing me. What’s the matter? Wait a minute.’ She got up and went out into the hall. They could hear her talking, and then she moved further away. Selwyn let his chair crash forward on to all four legs.

      Katherine carried dishes to the sink, then leaned to look out into the yard. It was raining hard, and puddles glimmered in the porch light from their wing. Polly and Selwyn’s side was a darker slab of darkness.

      ‘Pretty bleak for the guard,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t like to be out there with only the dead for company, would you?’

      ‘They’re not going to come back,’ Colin said.

      Miranda broke in, ‘No. Except, in a way they have, haven’t they? We’re thinking about them, peering down the centuries, dressing them in our minds in their necklaces and attaching stories to their lives and deaths. I can’t get that child’s skull and ribs out of my head.’

      Amos took Katherine’s arm. ‘Come on, old girl. History’s all bones. We’re going to bed now.’

      The Knights went out into the yard. Colin collected up his book and laptop, and said goodnight. Selwyn and Miranda were left alone.

      ‘Barb,’ Selwyn began softly, in the voice that he used only for her.

      ‘No.’

      His mouth curled, making him look dangerous again. ‘Is that no generally, as a blanket edict, or in relation to something specific?’

      Since the bathroom day, Miranda had avoided being alone with him. Now the possibility that Polly might step back into the room at any moment held her in a bubble of tension. Each of her senses was amplified. Miranda could imagine so vividly what it would be like if he left his chair, took her in his arms and put his mouth to the hollow formed by her collarbone, that it was as if he had actually done it. She swallowed, her mouth dry.

      ‘Just no,’ she whispered.

      ‘I want to touch you.’

      ‘I know.’

      They listened to the rain.

      ‘What shall we do?’ he asked, as much of himself as to her.

      ‘We’ll live here at Mead, value our friendships, and get old together.’

      There was a shocking crash as Selwyn’s glass hit the red tiles at his feet and smashed into fragments. Neither of them could have said for certain whether he had thrown it or accidentally let it fall.

      ‘I don’t want to get old.’

      There was so much vehemence and bitterness in his voice that it frightened her. ‘I don’t want to hear any more about death. Jake’s dead, Stephen’s dead. There are skeletons at the bottom of the fucking garden. What happened to the fairies, then? I want to live now, Mirry. I want you.’

      ‘I know,’ she whispered again.

      If Polly hadn’t come in at that moment, she would have gone to him.

      ‘That was Omie,’ Polly said. She flipped her phone shut.

      ‘Was it?’ Selwyn sounded dazed.

      ‘I just said it was. There’s broken glass all over the floor.’

      He sighed. ‘I dropped my drink.’

      ‘Probably just as well.’ Polly had already gone for the dustpan. He took it from her and roughly swept up the broken pieces. Miranda stood up, very stiffly, as if all her joints hurt.

      ‘It’s been an interesting day, hasn’t it? I’m going to bed. Sleep well, you two,’ she said.

      Polly and Selwyn lay on their bed under the tarpaulin. Water dripped steadily above their heads and ran off into an enamel bowl. The various drips into various receptacles around the room sounded like an elaborate piano exercise.

      ‘Are you ready?’ Selwyn asked.

      ‘Yes.’

      He leaned up on one elbow, his shadow looming grotesquely on the opposite wall. He fiddled for a moment with the knob and then turned out the gas lamp. The mantle glowed red for two seconds and then they were in darkness.

      ‘Were you and Miranda arguing?’ Polly asked.

      ‘No.’

      She waited, but he didn’t add anything.

      She was intensely conscious of her heavy thigh and the six inches that separated their two bodies. If Selwyn and Miranda hadn’t been arguing there was something else going on, and that possibility worried her much more than routine squabbling. History meant that there was always a buried connection between the two of them, but Polly was beginning to realize that she had underestimated the pull of it. Living here as closely as they did, seeing each other constantly, was disinterring the ancient foundations.

      The dripping seemed to grow louder, as if the drops were hitting her skull.

      ‘I’m concerned about Omie,’ she said at length, casting her fears in a less threatening mould.

      Selwyn gave an impatient twitch. ‘That’s nothing very new. What is it this time?’

      ‘She’s angry with us. We’ve sold their home, moved up here. She says it’s as if we’ve abandoned them.’

      There were five drips, then six. Three of them came very close together, almost as one.

      ‘Poll, our children are all adults. We’ve brought them to this point, healthy and educated and relatively normal. Or you have, mostly, I’m not claiming any particular glory for it. But we’ve got to let them live their own lives, now, and in the future. You can’t be their guardian and safety net for ever. Even you can’t do that.’

      ‘I could. Isn’t that what parents are meant to do?’

      ‘No, I don’t think so.’

      ‘Omie says she thinks there’s something up with Ben. Alph does, as well.’