disappointed young Nicky. From sheer idle curiosity, Thea would have liked to hear the next part of the story.
But a far more compelling story was hanging in limbo on her very doorstep. She remembered a convoluted dream where the body she had found was in the same corner again, frozen solid with ice on his eyelashes and lips. Then he was gone and she was searching desperately for him, with Hepzie digging insanely in a snowdrift, and five large Hereford cows watching thoughtfully. The sense of obligation remained with her now she was awake.
Could she face another trudge across the fields to the patch of woodland which had struck her as significant on Friday? She could go and look for herself, just in case the man had managed to get himself there. She needed, for her own peace of mind, to have a look. If the man had reached the woods unaided, he had probably eventually got himself home and warm and sober, forgetting the whole embarrassing episode. That would be absolutely fine with Thea, and she held the thought close, like a talisman. But there were insistent connections forming in her subconscious that made her afraid that the reality would be quite otherwise.
* * *
She waited until late morning, pleased to see a weak sun filtering through hazy clouds. No risk of further snow, then, and surely some scope for optimism that a thaw was on the way? Old Kate’s aged father could be wrong. Everybody knew – didn’t they? – that those times were over when snow could last for weeks, and great freezes take hold of the country. Now it was never more than a few days, and then the worries would all be of flooding caused by the rapidly melting snow.
She debated with herself as to whether to take Hepzie with her, and concluded that it was a bad idea. The dog would be a distraction, liable to get lost and probably useless in tracking someone from two days ago. Making sure the doors were firmly closed, she set off alone, wearing hat, scarf and gloves as well as Lucy’s fleecy coat.
The novelty of the snow had long evaporated. It had a different feel under her boots – the surface crisp and crunchy, but beneath that it was much less dense, turning to crystals with spaces between them, collapsing at the impact of her feet. As if equally fed up with the alteration of his world, Donkey had emerged from his shed, and was walking with great deliberation round his perimeter fence. His route coincided with Thea’s at the bottom gate, and it seemed to her that he was gazing rather wistfully towards thetrees where she was headed. For a crazy moment she imagined riding him through the snow, giving him some work to do for once in his life. But there was no harness, and even though she was small and light, and he was bigger than many donkeys she had met, it seemed like an unfair exploitation.
The tracks were still visible, but the fresh snow of Friday afternoon had softened and blurred them. The Herefords were still milling around aimlessly. They had been given a quantity of hay, she noted, in a large circular metal cage some distance away. Their coats were shaggy, their breath steaming in front of their faces. Thea paused to admire them and the picture they made with their red coats vivid against the white snow.
It was relatively unusual to leave cattle outside all the year round – only the hardiest older breeds could withstand this sort of weather, and even they would need a lot of supplementary feeding. The workload for Kate had to be greatly increased by the snow, and yet she had not seemed unduly strained by it. It was a lifestyle that Thea could scarcely begin to imagine, despite her brief forays into the world of animal husbandry.
She brought her attention to the events of Friday: the timings especially. It had been about ten-thirty when she found the body, ten forty-fivewhen she’d called the police. They had arrived at the barn not long before twelve-thirty, by which time the body must have gone. If the man had indeed been
But a far more compelling story was hanging in limbo on her very doorstep. She remembered a convoluted dream where the body she had found was in the same corner again, frozen solid with ice on his eyelashes and lips. Then he was gone and she was searching desperately for him, with Hepzie digging insanely in a snowdrift, and five large Hereford cows watching thoughtfully. The sense of obligation remained with her now she was awake.
Could she face another trudge across the fields to the patch of woodland which had struck her as significant on Friday? She could go and look for herself, just in case the man had managed to get himself there. She needed, for her own peace of mind, to have a look. If the man had reached the woods unaided, he had probably eventually got himself home and warm and sober, forgetting the whole embarrassing episode. That would be absolutely fine with Thea, and she held the thought close, like a talisman. But there were insistent connections forming in her subconscious that made her afraid that the reality would be quite otherwise.
* * *
She waited until late morning, pleased to see a weak sun filtering through hazy clouds. No risk of further snow, then, and surely some scope for optimism that a thaw was on the way? Old Kate’s aged father could be wrong. Everybody knew – didn’t they? – that those times were over when snow could last for weeks, and great freezes take hold of the country. Now it was never more than a few days, and then the worries would all be of flooding caused by the rapidly melting snow.
She debated with herself as to whether to take Hepzie with her, and concluded that it was a bad idea. The dog would be a distraction, liable to get lost and probably useless in tracking someone from two days ago. Making sure the doors were firmly closed, she set off alone, wearing hat, scarf and gloves as well as Lucy’s fleecy coat.
The novelty of the snow had long evaporated. It had a different feel under her boots – the surface crisp and crunchy, but beneath that it was much less dense, turning to crystals with spaces between them, collapsing at the impact of her feet. As if equally fed up with the alteration of his world, Donkey had emerged from his shed, and was walking with great deliberation round his perimeter fence. His route coincided with Thea’s at the bottom gate, and it seemed to her that he was gazing rather wistfully towards thetrees where she was headed. For a crazy moment she imagined riding him through the snow, giving him some work to do for once in his life. But there was no harness, and even though she was small and light, and he was bigger than many donkeys she had met, it seemed like an unfair exploitation.
The tracks were still visible, but the fresh snow of Friday afternoon had softened and blurred them. The Herefords were still milling around aimlessly. They had been given a quantity of hay, she noted, in a large circular metal cage some distance away. Their coats were shaggy, their breath steaming in front of their faces. Thea paused to admire them and the picture they made with their red coats vivid against the white snow.
It was relatively unusual to leave cattle outside all the year round – only the hardiest older breeds could withstand this sort of weather, and even they would need a lot of supplementary feeding. The workload for Kate had to be greatly increased by the snow, and yet she had not seemed unduly strained by it. It was a lifestyle that Thea could scarcely begin to imagine, despite her brief forays into the world of animal husbandry.
She brought her attention to the events of Friday: the timings especially. It had been about ten-thirty when she found the body, ten forty-fivewhen she’d called the police. They had arrived at the barn not long before twelve-thirty, by which time the body must have gone. If the man had indeed been
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