by Paul Kelly
I hope this news doesn’t depress you too much but I thought you should know about it since you were well acquainted with the old dear. I will leave you to decide whether or not to tell Danny. That is why I have marked the envelope as I have done.
Write when you have time and come and see us again whenever you can. Chantal is looking forward to meeting you all again and to tell you her good news . . .(I’m not supposed to tell you, but I think you will have guessed by now . . .I’m saying NOTHING, but I hope its a boy.)
All my love, Mark.
***
Evie sat wearily on the settee afraid to look at the cutting from the newspaper that she had tucked under the cushion. A little tear formed at the corner of her eye as she remembered Jane Foxworthy . . and of the all the grief and sorrow she had in her life.
Slowly she reached under the cushion and brought out the newspaper cutting together with two ten piece coins and a fair handful of biscuit crumbs . . . The paper was dated August14th 1979, but Evie could only read a short part of the story, where it said that Jane Foxworthy was found hanging from the kissing trees on August 10th, before she broke into tears and put it down.
***
The following day a little parcel arrived addressed to Mr. & Mrs W. Slade & Family . . . .
It was wrapped in purple and green paper, which made Evie wonder who could have sent it, but as she unwrapped the tiny box, the began to realize . . . for inside, she found two dolly mixtures and a ring . . a solitary sapphire ring encircled with seed pearls and finished with one little seed pearl in the centre of the large sapphire. It had been posted from Glenfarach five days before on August 9th.
She closed her eyes and buried her head in her hands.
***
Wills and Danny returned that evening to the house, but Evie said nothing of the tragedy at Glenfarach. Instead she braced herself and smiled broadly.
“Do you remember Miss Foxworthy, Wills?” she asked . . . and he looked for a moment to the ceiling before he answered.
“Why yes, that was the dotty old dear who run the sweetie shop in Glenfarach, wasn’t it? Wasn’t she involved in . . . .”
Evie cut him short.
“Yes, she said, . . “She was involved in making the most delicious peanut butter biscuits . . . but I never did get the recipe.”
The End
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