The Owl Service Read online

  “She looked wild,” said Alison.

  “Do you blame her?” said Gwyn. “And what’s a clip on the earhole among friends? You go and square your family, put them wise, get in first: just in case. I’ll calm Mam down, and then we’ll see to the loft. She’s touchy this morning because I’m not supposed to speak to Huw, and I must over this job.”

  “But what happened then?” said Roger. “That plate was the one she took from Ali’s room yesterday, wasn’t it?”

  “I know,” said Gwyn. “Where are the others?”

  “I put them on the billiard table,” said Alison.

  “I’ll pick them up on my way back,” said Gwyn. “We’ll have a good look at them later.”

  “Who’s going to deal with which?” Alison said to Roger as they walked across the lawn.

  “We’ll each tackle our own, I think, in this case,” said Roger.

  “Mummy’s sunbathing on the terrace,” said Alison.

  “Right. Dad’s in the river somewhere, I expect, trying out his puncture repairs. Peculiar business, isn’t it? You know just before Nancy yelled – when you were letting off steam about her – a crack went right through that pebble-dash in the billiard-room. I saw it. It was behind you. Peculiar that. It’s the second since yesterday. Dad spotted one last night.”

  Gwyn walked slowly. The plate had been on the dresser in the kitchen: his mother had been in the larder: a difficult shot. Who could have done it? Huw was shovelling coke by the stables. Who would have done it?

  The smash in the billiard-room was like an explosion. Gwyn ran. The fragments of the plates lay on the floor. They had hit the wall where it was pebble-dashed, and the whole width of the mortar near the top was laced with cracks. Gwyn looked under the table and in the cupboards, but no one was hiding, and the animals were motionless in their glass.

  Very gently, and softly, trying to make no noise, Gwyn gathered up the pieces. The morning sun came through the skylights and warmed the oak beams of the roof. They gave off a sweet smell, the essence of their years, wood and corn and milk and all the uses of the room. A motorcycle went by along the road above the house, making the glass rattle.

  Gwyn heard something drop behind him, and he turned. A lump of pebble-dash had come off the wall, and another fell, and in their place on the wall two eyes were watching him.

  CHAPTER 5

  “G wyn said he’d done it. I don’t think she believed him, but she had to shut up.”

  “Good,” said Clive. “His head’s screwed on.”

  “Yes, Gwyn’s all right,” said Roger. “But I thought you’d better know, in case Nancy wants to make a row over it.”

  “Too true,” said Clive.

  “None of us chucked the plate,” said Roger.

  “It probably fell, and the old girl thought someone had buzzed her,” said Clive. “That seems to have fixed my puncture.” He lumbered out of the river. “Dry as a bone.”

  “Have you seen this, Dad?” said Roger. He was sitting on top of the upright slab. “This hole?”

  “Oh? No.”

  “Any ideas how it was made?” said Roger. “It goes right through.”

  “So it does. Machine tooled, I’d say. Lovely job. Seems a rum thing to do out here in the wilds.”

  “Have a squint from the other side, up towards the house.”

  Roger’s father put his hands on his knees and bent to look through the hole.

  “Well I never,” he said. “Fancy that.”

  “It frames the top of the ridge, and the trees, doesn’t it?”

  “Like a snapshot.”

  “That’s a point,” said Roger. “I wonder if it’s possible. You’d need a heck of a focal depth, and the camera I’ve brought here only stops down to f.16. It’d be interesting, technically – You’re off shopping today, aren’t you?”

  “Yes: back after tea, I expect. That’s the drag of this place. It’s a day’s job every week.”

  “I’ll need a different film and paper,” said Roger. “Can you buy it for me?”

  “Surely. But write it down, old lad.”

  Gwyn locked the billiard-room door, and instead of putting the key back on its hook in the kitchen he kept it in his pocket and went down the narrow path between the back of the house and the high retaining wall of the steep garden. He moved in a green light of ferns and damp moss, and the air smelt cool.

  When he reached the open lawn he sat on the edge of the fish tank and rinsed his hands. Grey lime dust drifted from his fingers like a cobweb over the water. He bit a torn nail smooth, and cleaned out the sand with a twig. Then he went to the stables.

  At first he thought that Huw must have finished with the coke, but when he came to the yard he saw Huw leaning on his shovel, and something about him made Gwyn stop.

  Huw stood with two fingers lodged in his waistcoat pocket, his head cocked sideways, and although his body seemed to strain he did not move. He was talking to himself, but Gwyn could not hear what he said, and he was dazzled by the glare of the sun when he tried to find what Huw was looking at. Then he saw. It was the whole sky.

  There were no clouds, and the sky was drained white towards the sun. The air throbbed, flashed like blue lightning, sometimes dark, sometimes pale, and the pulse of the throbbing grew, and now the shades followed one another so quickly that Gwyn could see no more than a trembling which became a play of light on the sheen of a wing, but when he looked about him he felt that the trees and the rocks had never held such depth, and the line of the mountain made his heart shake.

  “There’s daft,” said Gwyn.

  He went up to Huw Halfbacon. Huw had not moved, and now Gwyn could hear what he was saying. It was almost a chant.

  “Come, apple-sweet murmurer; come, harp of my gladness; come, summer, come.”

  “Huw.”

  “Come, apple-sweet murmurer; come, harp of my gladness; come, summer, come.”

  “Huw?”

  “Come, apple-sweet murmurer; come, harp of my gladness; come, summer, come.”

  Huw looked at Gwyn, and looked through him. “She’s coming,” he said. “She won’t be long now.”

  “Mam says you’re to make a board to nail over the loft in the house,” said Gwyn. “If I measure up, can you let the job last till tomorrow?”

  Huw sighed, and began to shovel coke. “You want a board to nail up the loft, is that what you said?”

  “Yes, but we need time to bring the plates down without Mam finding out.”

  “Be careful.”

  “Don’t you worry.”

  “I’ll do that for you,” said Huw.

  “Why has Mam taken against you?”

  “You’d better ask her. I’ve no quarrel.”

  “She’s been away from the valley all these years. You’d think she’d have got over any old rows. But she hasn’t spoken to you, has she?”

  “Perhaps she is afraid in the English way,” said Huw. “But if they think I am weak in the head they should have seen my uncle. And grandfather they would lock in their brick walls.”

  “Why?”

  “Grandfather?” said Huw. “He went mad, down through the wood by the river.”

  “Here?” said Gwyn. “The wood in the garden, where it’s swampy?”

  “Yes. We don’t go there.”

  “Really, really mad?” said Gwyn.

  “That’s what the English said. They would not let him stay here. He lost his job.”

  “The English? Wasn’t the house lived in properly even then?”

  “It has never been a home,” said Huw. “They come for a while, and go. And my grandfather had to go. They would not let him stay in the valley.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “He walked away. Sometimes we heard of him. He sent those plates. He was working in the big potteries, and he decorated the plates and sent them to the house, and a letter to say he was all right now, but word came soon after that he had died at Stoke.”

  “But why were they put
in the loft? And why did Mam have hysterics when I found them?”

  “Ask her. She’s your mother,” said Huw. “Perhaps there’s always talk in a valley.”

  “Is there anything needed for the house while we’re out shopping, Halfbacon?”

  Roger and his father came into the yard.

  “No, sir,” said Huw. “We are not wanting any stuff.”

  “Good,” said Clive. “I’ll be off, then. Jot down what you want for your snaps, won’t you, Roger? Funny rock you have in the meadow, Halfbacon. Who drilled the hole in it?”

  “It is the Stone of Gronw,”said Huw.

  “Oh? What’s that when it’s at home, eh? Ha ha.”

  “There is a man being killed at that place,” said Huw: “old time.”

  “Was there now!”

  “Yes,” said Huw. “He has been taking the other man’s wife.”

  “That’s a bit off, I must say,” said Clive. “I suppose the stone’s a kind of memorial, eh? But who made the hole? You can see those trees through it at the top of the ridge.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Huw. “He is standing on the bank of the river, see, and the husband is up there on the Bryn with a spear: and he is putting the stone between himself and the spear, and the spear is going right through the stone and him.”

  “Oho,” said Clive.

  “Why did he stand there and let it happen?” said Roger.

  “Because he killed the husband the same way earlier to take the wife.”

  “Tit for tat,” said Clive. “These old yarns, eh? Well, I must be off.”

  “Yes, sir, that is how it is happening, old time.”

  Gwyn went with Roger and his father towards the house.

  “Will you be using the billiard-room today, Mr Bradley?”

  “No,” said Clive. “I’ll be fishing as soon as we’re back: mustn’t waste this weather, you know. Help yourself, old son.”

  “Here’s what I want for my camera, Dad,” said Roger. “It’s all there.”

  “Fine,” said Clive. “Well, cheerio.”

  “I was beginning to believe that maundering old liar,” said Roger.

  “Huw wasn’t lying. Not deliberate,” said Gwyn.

  “What? A spear making that hole? Thrown all the way from those trees? By a stiff?”

  “Huw believes it.”

  “You Welsh are all the same,” said Roger. “Scratch one and they all bleed.”

  “What happened to you yesterday by the Stone of Gronw?” said Gwyn. “You knew what I meant when I was trying to explain how it felt when I picked up a plate. And then you started talking about the stone out of nowhere.”

  “It was a feeling,” said Roger. “One minute everything’s OK – and the next minute it’s not. Too much clean living, I expect. I’ll cut down on the yoghurt—”

  “And you came straight up from the river,” said Gwyn. “Didn’t you? Work it out, man. We both felt something, and it must have been near enough at the same time. What was it?”

  “A thump,” said Roger. “A kind of scream. Very quick. Perhaps there was an accident—”

  “I’ve not heard of any,” said Gwyn. “And in this valley you can’t sneeze without everyone knowing from here to Aber.”

  “There was a whistling, too,” said Roger, “in the air. That’s all.”

  “And I got a shock from the plates,” said Gwyn. “And nothing’s been the same since. Did you notice the sky when you were with your Dad a few minutes ago?”

  “No?”

  “Flashing,” said Gwyn. “Like strip lighting switched on, only blue.”

  “No,” said Roger.

  “Huw saw it. Where’s Alison?”

  “Gone to tell her mother about yours.”

  “There’s something to show you,” said Gwyn. “In the billiard-room.”

  They found Alison rattling the door handle. “Why have you locked it?” she said. “I want the plates.”

  “They’re still here,” said Gwyn.

  He unlocked the door and they went inside.

  “Gwyn! You’ve broken them!”

  “Not me, lady. Have you seen what’s behind you?”

  “Holy cow!” said Roger.

  CHAPTER 6

  S he was tall. Her long hair fell to her waist, framing in gold her pale and lovely face. Her eyes were blue. She wore a loose gown of white cambric, embroidered with living green stems of broom and meadowsweet, and a wreath of green oak leaves in her hair.

  “Gave me quite a turn, she did,” said Gwyn. “There was just her eyes showing at first, but that pebble-dash soon came off.”

  “She’s so beautiful!” said Alison. “Who’d want to cover her up?”

  “Sixteenth century, if it’s a day,” said Roger. “Fresh as new. How’s it survived under that lot?”

  The woman was painted life-size in oils on wooden panelling. She stood against a background of clover heads spaced in rows.

  “What a find!” said Roger. “It’ll fetch thousands.”

  “Not so fast,” said Gwyn. “We’ll keep our mouths shut. You’ll have to organise your Dad, and the one person who mustn’t know is my Mam.”

  “Why, for heaven’s sake? Don’t you realise? You’ve a masterpiece here.”

  “My Mam would take an axe to it,” said Gwyn. “Start thinking. You’ve not asked me how I found it.”

  “How did you, then?” said Alison.

  “It was your plates. I was coming back in here when I heard them smash. They’d been chucked against the pebble-dash, and a piece fell off.”

  “Why should this make your mother wreck it?” said Alison.

  “My Mam’s scared stiff about something. She’s grim at the best of times, but not this bad. It’s the plates, isn’t it, Alison?”

  “How should I know?”

  “Guessing; and what Huw said. ‘Mind how you are looking at her,’ and now in the yard, ‘She’s coming,’ he said.”

  “What does that mean?” said Roger.

  “You can’t tell. He could be talking about the weather. It’s called ‘she’ in Welsh.”

  “Then that’s it,” said Roger.

  “But if it isn’t?” said Gwyn. “Someone cared enough about the painting and the plates to lug a dinner service into the roof and to pebble-dash this wall. You don’t go to all that trouble for nothing. Somebody wanted them hidden, and now they’re not hidden. They’re – loose.”

  “It might not have been the same person. And there’s no harm, whatever the reason is,” said Alison, “not if we find something as wonderful as this.”

  “Have you looked close? Marvellous detail, isn’t it?” said Gwyn.

  “Every strand of hair,” said Roger. “I can’t get over how it’s stayed so clean all this time.”

  “Marvellous,” said Gwyn. “Have you looked at them clover heads, boyo?”

  “Great stuff: like heraldry,” said Roger. He went right up to the panelling. “And yet you could pick them—” Roger stepped back. “Oh no,” he said.

  “What’s the matter?” said Alison. She looked. The heads were formed of curved white petals bunched together, each painted separately, fine and sharp. But the petals were not petals: they were claws.

  “Someone had a nasty mind,” said Roger.

  “Or maybe that’s the way it was when they painted it,” said Gwyn. “Nasty.”

  “You can’t have flowers made of claws,” said Roger.

  “Why not? You can have owls made of flowers, can’t you?” said Gwyn. “Let’s bring the plates down. I want to see them close to – and with the pattern on. Leave this pebble-dash: I’ll clear it up later. And don’t say anything about this wall until we’ve had a think.”

  They arranged that Gwyn and Roger should take the plates out of the loft and lower them from the bedroom window in a linen basket to Alison, who would be waiting with a barrow.

  “I’m getting cold feet over this,” said Roger. “Shouldn’t we leave it as it is, and nail the loft up?”

/>   “There’s something in this valley,” said Gwyn, “and my Mam’s on to it. She’s been like the kiss of death since she saw them plates. That clover: them plates: it’s owls and flowers, and it’s dangerous.”

  “So nail the loft up,” said Roger. “If you’d seen Ali last night you wouldn’t be keen.”

  “That’s why I’m shifting the plates,” said Gwyn. “Get them away from her first, and then we can think. I’ve not had a proper look at them paper models she makes: are they genuine?”

  “Absolutely. I’ve watched her. It’s dead clever the way she traces the patterns out so it fits together.”

  “Does she really keep losing them?”

  “I think so,” said Roger. “She’s quite het up about it.”

  “So I’ve noticed,” said Gwyn. “We must disconnect her.”

  “Disconnect?”

  “That’s about it. Batteries can’t work without wires.”

  Gwyn went up into the loft, and handed the dinner service to Roger, who put it in the linen basket and lowered it on a rope to Alison, then Gwyn measured the hatch, and came down.

  “You know, I think we’re being a bit overwrought about all this,” said Roger. “When you see them they are just plates. And perhaps it was just mice.”

  “Mice,” said Gwyn. “I’d forgotten. I set a cage trap.”

  He climbed up the ladder and opened the hatch. Roger could see him from the waist down. He stood very still.

  “Have you caught anything?” said Roger.

  “You’ve seen a cage trap, haven’t you?” said Gwyn. “You know how it works – a one-way door: what’s in it can’t get out: right?”

  “Yes,” said Roger. “Have you caught anything?”

  “I think I’ve caught a mouse,” said Gwyn.

  “‘Think’?”

  Gwyn came down the ladder. He held out the cage. Inside was a hard-packed ball of bones and fur.

  “I think it’s a mouse,” he said. “Owls aren’t fussy. They just swallow straight off, and what they don’t want they cough up later. That’s an owl’s pellet: but I think it was mouse.”