Page 53 of The Christmas Retreat
‘It’s a scramble, but there are wooden rails here and there to help. It’s just a half-moon of pebbles and you can’t get far enough from the path for the sea to cut you off.’
I couldn’t see the beach, but the moon reflected silvery light on to the waves far below and I could hear the shushing noise they made on the shore.
We said nothing more until we arrived at the top, by the Neolithic tomb, by which time my face was frozen from the chilly breeze, while the rest of me, in my warm jeans and anorak, was toasty hot.
‘You can just see the glimmer of the snow-topped mountains across the estuary,’ said Rhys.
‘Yes. They look as if they’ve been covered in runny icing, don’t they?’
It was getting steadily lighter now and I turned to examine the flat stone top of Mab’s Grave more closely. It was lichen-spotted, and ancient cup and ring marks had been gouged out of the surface, some more weathered than others.
Rhys pointed out the triskelion symbols also carved there, which, like the other markings, appeared to have been added over time, and also a strange formation in the surface at the upper end of the great slab, shaped like a star, which he said had given the village its name of Seren Bach – Little Star.
‘The pub in St Melangell is called the Star and Stone,’ he added, ‘but come on, that wind is icy and your nose looks like a cherry!’
‘Glacé or maraschino?’ I asked, and he laughed.
‘More glacé.’
This was not very flattering, but it made me laugh too, and indeed, I was glad to take the more sheltered path downwards, past the dead embers of the bonfire.
‘So, will you get another cat?’ asked Rhys, surprising me by suddenly reverting to our earlier conversation.
‘I mean to, but I need to find a new home first.’
‘Oh, yes, Evie said you’d had to give up your cottage and suggested we help you scour the internet for a new home!’
‘She was joking … I think,’ I said. ‘I have started looking but I haven’t really had the heart for it. But now I’ve moved out of Wisteria Cottage, I really will have to get on with it.’
‘Why did you have to leave your old home?’
I told him about my rural idyll and the end of my Eden, and that everything was now in storage while I decided where to go next.
‘I liked being remote, but maybe Evie is right and I shouldn’t live somewhere quite so cut off. But I do love the quiet rural life, even if I did slip into being a bit of a recluse during lockdown. Evie says I have agoraphobia, but I’m not that bad, just out of the habit of mixing with people. Coming to the retreat was all a bit of a shock to the system.’
‘I can imagine. Even we had got out of the habit of having lots of people, mostly strangers, in the house. I did get a lot of writing done during lockdown, though, and Nerys worked throughout just as usual: the benefits of working from home. Of course, the pottery reopened as soon as it could and Timon continued his own work in his studio there.’
He paused. Then, as we entered the shadows of the oak wood, he said rather tentatively, ‘What do you think of Triskelion now you’re here?’
‘I love the house. It sort of felt friendly as soon as I arrived, despite being so big. And the setting, with the sea, the sky, the wood and the ancient tomb, is very special.’
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 solvedthat 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.’
