Chapter 2
AUbrEY
‘Pah! An American invention!’
The Reverend Silas Alexander was never one to hide what he thought and today was no exception.
Callie and Aubrey exchanged glances, and the expression on Callie’s face clearly alerted Brodie and Amelia to the fact that someone – and there were no prizes for guessing who – had said something disparaging.
They were in the living room at the vicarage of All Souls in the Cotswolds village of Rowan Vale.
It was a fine July day, and sunlight streamed through the large windows, revealing countless dust motes which Amelia – the incumbent vicar of All Souls Church – had admitted she couldn’t help but feel guilty about, even though she knew there were dust motes everywhere, whatever the weather, and it wasn’t all down to her lack of housework. Not entirely, anyway.
‘Reverend Alexander?’ she queried now.
Callie smirked. ‘How did you guess?’
‘Really, Silas,’ Aubrey said, ‘can you at least let Callie finish? There’s absolutely no need to be so rude. Can’t you try to be positive for a change?’
‘Ah, positivity,’ Silas said, nodding contemptuously. ‘Another American invention.’
‘How on earth,’ Callie said, ‘can positivity be an American invention?’
Silas evidently decided to ignore Amelia’s splutter of laughter.
‘All this soul-searching, putting a positive spin on any given situation and refusing to see the downside of anything. Like that nauseating pest of a child, Pollyanna. Ridiculous. Life – and afterlife come to that – is full of misery and suffering and that’s all there is to it.
Denying the fact doesn’t make you smart.
It makes you a fool with unrealistic expectations.
The sooner people accept that, the happier they’ll be. ’
‘Well,’ Aubrey said reasonably, ‘you’ve accepted it and it doesn’t seem to have made you any happier.’
‘What’s going on?’ Amelia asked.
Aubrey looked at her with sympathy. It must be terribly confusing for her, given that she wasn’t a ghost like himself and Silas and didn’t possess Callie’s ability to see and communicate with the spirits as easily as if they were flesh and blood.
At least she had Callie’s fiancé Brodie to commiserate with, since he was in the same position.
‘Silas and Aubrey are discussing the American habit of looking on the bright side,’ Callie explained.
‘Oh. You mean like, “Have a nice day” whenever you pick up a burger?’ Amelia said. ‘Even though the burger tastes like cardboard and you’re basically inviting a heart attack?’
Callie laughed. ‘Sort of. Sorry, Aubrey,’ she added, as it evidently struck her that Aubrey had died of a heart attack himself.
Aubrey waved the subject away. It had all happened a long time ago. He rarely dwelt on the way he’d passed these days.
‘Can we get back to the subject now please?’ Callie asked Silas, who snorted in disgust.
‘As far as I’m concerned, the subject is closed. There will be no Halloween extravaganza in Rowan Vale, this year or any other. Over my dead body!’
‘Well, quite,’ Callie said, and turned to Amelia. ‘What do you think? Halloween event in the village. Good idea or bad?’
‘Oh, I think it sounds like fun,’ Amelia said, which didn’t surprise Aubrey in the slightest. Amelia really was a most charming woman, and astonishingly open-minded for a vicar. ‘As long as due respect is shown, of course.’
‘There is nothing respectful about Halloween!’ spluttered Silas.
Callie repeated his statement rather glumly.
Amelia gave a resigned sigh. ‘Look, All Hallows’ Eve is simply the first day of Allhallowtide,’ she said with a shrug.
‘It’s followed by All Saints’ Day on November first, and All Souls’ Day on November second, which we know as the Commemoration of All Faithful Departed.
Actually,’ she added, ‘All Souls’ Day was removed from the Church of England calendar after the Reformation, but the Church reinstated it in the 1920s. ’
Silas glared at her. ‘I’m well aware of church history,’ he snapped. ‘I may be dead but I’m perfectly capable of keeping up with current events. It was restored in 1928 as a matter of fact. The year after I… Anyway, the point is, that woman should remember she’s not the only vicar in the room.’
‘Perhaps,’ Callie said thoughtfully, ‘we could do something more – I don’t know – churchy on the other days, to balance out the Halloween celebrations?’
‘Splendid idea,’ Aubrey agreed. ‘What do you say, Silas?’
The elderly man rolled his eyes. ‘Churchy? Churchy!? What on earth is that supposed to mean?’
‘Traditionally,’ Amelia said, ‘On All Souls’ Day people came together to clean and restore graveyards. Tidy up the headstones, that sort of thing. We could do that, I suppose. Perhaps lay flowers, light candles on the graves. I could say a prayer…’
Silas turned away and Aubrey said gently, ‘It sounds rather nice, don’t you think, Silas?’
‘We could toll the church bells,’ Amelia said. ‘And hand out soul cakes to the children of the village.’
‘Soul cakes?’ Brodie asked, puzzled.
‘They’re sort of like little spicy shortbread biscuits,’ Amelia explained.
She hesitated. ‘It started in Medieval times, though the practice mostly died out in the 1930s, except in a few places. They used to be given to children as they went around the village, saying prayers for those souls in the – er – Intermediate State between heaven and earth.’
There was an awkward silence.
‘Well,’ Aubrey said at last, with determined cheeriness, ‘I expect we could do with some of those then. Prayers, I mean. There are a lot of souls in the Intermediate State around here, after all. We should ask Mia to commence baking!’
Callie gave him a grateful smile and relayed what he’d said to Brodie and Amelia, who looked relieved that he hadn’t taken offence.
‘That’s why All Souls’ Day was removed from the Church calendar after the Reformation,’ Amelia explained.
‘Because Protestants believed that there was no such thing as the Intermediate State, and that all souls went directly either to heaven or hell. But after the Great War and so much senseless destruction, people wanted to commemorate the dead, and that’s what All Souls’ Day became about really.
A day to commemorate all our dearly departed. ’
Aubrey gave Silas a kind smile. ‘Well, I’m sure we can agree there’s no harm in that, can’t we?’
‘Whatever the reasons, it doesn’t alter the fact that she wants Rowan Vale to become like one of those ghastly American small-town places, where children run around with sheets over their heads, knocking on doors, and threatening perfectly decent people with all manner of bad behaviour if they don’t hand over a ridiculous amount of sweets,’ Silas grumbled.
‘You’re deliberately missing the point! That’s not what she meant at all,’ Aubrey protested. He gave Callie a worried look as he imagined his wife Agnes’s response if that were the case. ‘Is it?’
‘Of course not!’ Callie sounded frustrated as she repeated Silas’s fears to Amelia and Brodie.
‘I just think that – in Rowan Vale of all places – Halloween should be celebrated in some way. Tastefully. I think bringing the church into it is a brilliant idea, especially since it’s All Souls Church.
Prayers for the souls of the departed, and for those in the – what did you call it? – Intermediate State.’
‘Purgatory,’ Silas said flatly. ‘That’s what they used to call it in my day.’
‘Yes, well, we’re a bit more enlightened these days,’ Aubrey pointed out. ‘This afterlife is nothing like the purgatory we used to hear about back then, is it?’
‘Isn’t it?’ Silas asked, sounding bleak.
‘So,’ Amelia said, oblivious to the conversation that was taking place just a few feet away from her, ‘you take care of Halloween itself. Then on All Saints’ Day – which is a Sunday, splendidly enough – I shall hold a special service, as usual, commemorating the saints, and all the dearly departed of the village, with special prayers for our, ahem, guests from the Intermediate State.
‘Since All Souls’ Day is on a Monday this year, when most people will be at work, I propose we also commemorate that – as is the norm these days – on All Saints’ Day.
We shall ask for volunteers to clean the headstones, tend the graves and lay flowers, then we’ll hand out soul cakes to the children of the village. What do you think?’
‘Oh, I say,’ Aubrey said admiringly. ‘That sounds absolutely marvellous. Jolly good show.’
‘Aubrey thinks it sounds great,’ Callie told Amelia.
‘And Silas?’
Callie sighed. ‘Silas has walked out.’
‘Ah.’ Amelia shrugged. ‘Seems I can’t do anything to please him, no matter what I say or do. It’s bloody depressing sharing the vicarage with someone who I know resents me so strongly, even if I can’t see or hear him. It’s like I absorb the disapproval radiating from him by osmosis.’
‘I don’t know how you stand it,’ Brodie said sympathetically.
‘Though, from what I’ve heard of the Reverend Silas Alexander, few people win his admiration or respect, so I wouldn’t take it personally.
You were never going to be his favourite living person anyway.
Bear in mind, he still considers this to be his church, his vicarage.
And you’re a female vicar, which he’ll naturally disapprove of. You had no chance.’
‘I suppose not. Well, I will do my best to please him, even though it’s an impossible task. So, what are these plans for Halloween, Callie?’
‘I’m not entirely sure just yet,’ Callie admitted. ‘Something fun and cheerful but not trick-or-treating. I don’t think Silas would ever approve of that, not to mention Agnes.’
She gave Aubrey a rueful look and he widened his eyes in response. Good Lord! Agnes would indeed never approve of the sort of scenes Silas had just described. Good call of Callie to put the kybosh on that little scheme!
‘Besides,’ Callie continued, ‘we have a lot of elderly residents in Rowan Vale. I don’t want them to be scared or harassed in any way.’
‘Well, quite,’ Amelia agreed, her head tilted as she considered the matter.