Four Silences Broken by H L Marsay

Author:H L Marsay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781959988809
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2023-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The village hall was packed. The parish council were holding a meeting to decide on the proposal to turn the Foxton farm buildings into a centre for Celtic heritage and Rachel had made sure as many of her friends and relatives as possible were there. Sarah was standing at the front of the hall, and she was almost at the end of her presentation. She had been planning it for weeks, rehearsing every word and slide in their sitting room. Rachel had found it fascinating, and it would probably have gone down a storm in one of Sarah’s lectures, but tonight it seemed she might have misjudged her audience.

Rachel glanced around nervously. Caroline was making notes and Meera was smiling and nodding politely, but Sarah was in danger of losing the rest of the room. The colonel, who had arrived on crutches, was looking bored. Reverend Davenport had already dozed off, Jack was trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn, while Lucy kept trying to discreetly check her phone. Dan’s eyes had glazed over, and he and her uncle Frank were both shifting uncomfortably in their seats. Sarah finally got to her last slide and sat down to subdued applause. She looked across to Rachel, who gave her the most encouraging smile she could muster.

The colonel, who was chair of the council, rose to his feet, wincing slightly. “Thank you, Professor Stevenson. That was most informative. Are there any questions?”

There was an awkward silence as the colonel waited and Sarah sat up eagerly.

“Very well,” continued the colonel when nobody raised their hand. “Would anyone like to speak against the proposal?” she asked.

Rachel had to stop herself rolling her eyes as predictably Nora stood up, full of self-importance.

“I for one, certainly object,” she began. “One of my shop storerooms backs on to the Foxton farm buildings. I’m not at all sure I or my customers would like the thought of skeletons being only inches away from my tinned goods.”

“For heaven’s sake!” protested Rachel. “You’ve got the graveyard on the other side of the shop. What’s the difference?”

“That’s consecrated ground. The people there are laid to rest in a proper Christian way.”

Sarah stood up to speak again. “Let me reassure you, Mrs Parkin, there will only be animal bones on display. We have discovered several that have been intricately carved and will be shown alongside pieces of jewellery we have discovered too. All human remains will be reinterred where we found them, and we have even arranged for a Druid priest to conduct a burial ceremony.”

This bit of news caused a stir of excitement around the room, but Nora still wasn’t mollified.

“I don’t like the sound of that. Pagans in the village. What if all this digging up reawakens the curse? Why should we risk that for the sake of some museum?”

A few of the older, more superstitious residents were nodding in agreement and Rachel could see Sarah beginning to look nervous as she stood up to reply again.

“I understand your fears and the history of the curse is something my team and I will be focusing our research on next.

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