Chapter 16 Punch Drunk #2
He looked pleased and I went on, ‘It’s odd to think of Arwen Madoc here in 1919. I don’t suppose a lot has changed and I wonder what she thought of it. She’d lived in London until then.’
‘She probably thought she’d come to the ends of the earth!
’ he said. ‘At that time the trains would have taken all day to get anywhere near. I expect they sent a car to meet her, but the roads then would have been pretty bad. And once she was here, it was isolated, with no buses even, unless she walked into St Melangell first.’
‘But she must have liked the idea of living in a rural community, because after her summer here she went to live in Lamorna in Cornwall, with her friend, and painted seascapes there.’
I told him about what we’d found out about Arwen from Milly Vane’s descendant and also the contents of the trunks Milly had sent on to Arwen’s daughter.
‘… What we didn’t know was how Arwen came to leave here after only a short time, but I think we’ve probably solved that one, if Nerys can confirm when the accident happened to Cosmo Caradoc, her great-grandfather,’ I finished.
‘It sounds the likeliest explanation,’ Rhys agreed. ‘I don’t know that Evie will learn much more than that here, but I’ll help you as much as I can. There are some photograph albums that might be useful.’
‘Thank you, that would be great! Evie’s hoping to get some material sent to her here soon, which might illuminate Arwen and Milly’s life together in Cornwall.
Milly had to move into residential care later in life and kept what she called her Memory Box with her, full of memorabilia.
Her descendant, Charlotte, is sure it is still in her attic and she has promised Evie she’ll search for it, as soon as she has the time. ’
I avoided a tree root and saw light ahead: the large glade in the middle of the oak grove with its burbling stream emerging from the ground.
‘I think Arwen must have been here for the Summer Solstice. I wonder if she took part.’
‘It’s a much smaller event than the winter one.
Only the Druid and the two saintly characters lead a torchlit procession up the hill to the bonfire, but he does sprinkle the oak roots and the tomb with wassail then, too.
Noel says couples used to jump over the bonfire at the Summer Solstice – for luck, I think – but it was dangerous so they stopped it eventually. ’
He halted by a flat stone and put the rucksack on it, then drew out of it a large pair of shears in a leather holster and a hessian sack.
‘Much easier for cutting mistletoe than that scythe,’ he said, suiting the action to the words, and it didn’t take long to fill the sack, for the oaks were covered in the winged, white-berried evergreen.
I’d sat down on the empty rucksack, which cushioned me a bit against the cold stone, and watched him. He was so tall, he could reach up easily to cut the mistletoe.
Then I turned to look at the pool and thought there was a definite magic about this glade and probably even more so in summer, with the sunlight falling through the branches.
It would be a great setting for that watery Mrs Snowboots book I had in mind, and could even inspire a new Hedgehoppers book too. They could sail over this pond, which to them would seem a vast ocean, for new adventures.
Rhys, returning with a sack full of mistletoe, broke into my reverie.
‘That should do it,’ he said, and I got up to give him his rucksack back again, so he could stow the shears inside.
‘Come on, Ginny. Time has flown. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving and don’t want to miss breakfast.’
‘You’re right,’ I said, checking my watch and realizing that, despite the cushioning layer of rucksack, my bottom was quite numb from the cold of the rock I’d been sitting on.
We walked more briskly down towards the pottery once we were out of the woods and I asked him what Cariad would like for Christmas.
‘That’s a kind thought, but you really don’t have to get her anything.’
‘I’d really love to. It would be fun. I’ve never bought a gift for a child before, even if she does sound terribly grown up most of the time!’
‘Well, if you’d really like to, there’s her archaeology interests, of course, but she also likes all kinds of things wizards and dragons, but not fairies.
She thinks those are wet. I expect you could find something in St Melangell.
There are lots of shops there now because, as well as being a pilgrimage site and still popular with artists, it’s a tourist hotspot in summer. ’
‘I might walk there after lunch then, and see. Cariad told me she’d asked you for the complete Harry Potter books.’
‘Yes, I think she’s old enough to take them all in. Some of the later ones are dark, but I’ve never restricted what she reads because I think children take books in on a level they understand, and the rest goes over their heads.’
‘That’s what Evie’s always thought, too,’ I agreed.
‘Nerys is taking Mel and Cariad into Harlech this morning, because they want to buy their Christmas presents. They’ve been saving up their pocket money.’
We skirted the house and made for the garden hall door again. Snookums, who must have returned home much earlier, shot out of the cat flap to greet us and then frisked around our feet while we took off our anoraks.
We could hear the sound of voices in the refectory already so, after dumping the sack of mistletoe in the hall, we went in to breakfast, glowing from the cold.