Page 38 (1/2)

One

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING

The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning for land froion There will be torrential rain and high winds, reaching gale force at ti 80 miles per hour in exposed places There is a risk of flash flooding in many areas and drivers are warned to take extra care Flood alerts are now in place for the following rivers in the south and south-western region …

THE RAIN HAD been steady all afternoon as Si of an old friend Now, as he poured hiainst the tall s of his flat and the gale was roaring up between the houses of the Cathedral Close The frames rattled

He had spread out soin the careful business of selection for his next exhibition The living roo soft shadows onto the walls and els but he had known Harry Blades since university, after which their paths had diverged, Harry to go into the army, Simon to Hendon, but they had kept in touch, tried to meet every year, and he had been happy to play best man on the previous day He was even happier to be home in his own calm space, sketchbooks open, drink in hand For his last birthday his steph’s Sword of Honour trilogy and later, afterto settle down on the sofa with it, plus a second whisky

The storm blew louder and a couple of tilass and a razor blade of lightning sliced down the sky at the same time as thunder crashed directly overhead

‘Spare a thought for those who have to be out in it,’ his mother would have said He spared one, for police on patrol, the fire and rescue services, the rough sleepers

It was not a night to let a cat out

In the Deerbon farmhouse, the cat Mephisto slept on the kitchen sofa, head to tail-tip and deep in the cushion, with no intention of venturing out of his flap into the howling night

Cat pulled back the curtain but it was i down theSa her secret diary, Felix asleep It was not her children but her lodger Cat orried about Molly Lucas, final-year medical student at Bevhao and slotted straight into their lives so easily that it was hard to i the day but always glad to look after the children any evening, was tidy, quiet, cheerful and anxious to learn as much from Cat as she could in the run-up to her exa bread and cakes so that there was usually a warm loaf on the table and the tins were full The children had taken to Molly fro taste in pop music with Hannah Felix was in love with her It had taken Cat a while to feel happy about inviting soer felt like too big a change She knew she was afraid that somehoould move her on yet another step from the old life with Chris But once Molly had arrived she realised, not for the first ti new came about, the old was not therefore obliterated Less ier had to rely on her father and Judith to look after the children if she was on call or at choir practice Once or twice recently, she had also accepted invitations to supper with old friends Going out was not only good for her spirits but a different kind of freedo to the ti in terror that one of the to die too

It was after nine and she orried Molly had been working in the med school library She biked to and from the hospital, a well-equipped, fast and efficient cyclist, but this was no stor had gone up a grade since the last ti Molly’s mobile but it itched off, tried the hospital but the library closed at six on Sundays

She went upstairs Hannah was asleep, her diary with its little gilt lock put away in the top drawer of her chest, its key on a chain round her neck Cat remembered the need of an eleven-year-old to keep a diary private, and the fury she had felt when her father had mocked her about her own How much it had mattered

The wind sent soh the cracks around two of the bedrooes were full of water

The stor to be let out Thunder cracked, startling Felix, who shouted out but barely woke and was easily settled again

‘This is how the world will end,’ Sa up from Journey to the Centre of the Earth as she went past

‘Possibly, but not tonight’ Cat did not wait for him to ask how she knew that, nor did she tell hiht out He would debate until dawn if she let hi – when he was tired, he simply fell asleep, lamp on, book in hand, and either she or Molly sorted him out when they went upstairs

Molly

Cat picked up the phone again

Just after ht the river burst its banks The car park of the supermarket on the Bevham Road was underwater within minutes, the streets and the lanes around the cathedral filled up, and in the grid of roads known as the Apostles water roared up through back gardens and pushed its way under doors into the terraced houses The fire services were out but could do little in the dark, and it was too dangerous to try installing floodlights in the high wind The storm washed a ton of debris down fro a lorry to overturn The road that skirted the Hill was impassable and the houses nearby now at risk

‘Si, were you asleep?’

‘You’re joking Are you OK?’

‘We are, but Molly isn’t back and she’s not answering her phone’

‘Which way does she usually come?’

‘Depends … at this tiht probably the bypass – it’s quiet and it’s quicker What should I do? I rang the hospital but they don’t think she’s there’

‘Could she have gone home with a friend rather than risk it on her bike?’

‘She’d have rung me’

‘Right, I’ll put in a call … there’s a red alert now and there’ll be plenty of people around If she’s had an accident they’ll find her’

‘Thanks, I’d be grateful Molly’s so reliable, she’d always let ?’

‘Fine’

‘How did she look?’

‘Who?’

‘The bride, duh’

‘Oh God, I don’t know … fine, I guess, beautiful, all that sort of thing’

‘Not going to ask what she earing’

‘No, no, I can tell you that It hite Now go to bed – I’ll ring if I hear anything’

But she would lie awake until she had news She made tea and settled down next to Mephisto, who had not stirred for several hours The rain was still dru a book about the lives of woes set it aside and got a battered paperback of a favourite Nancy Mitford novel froe and crea way

Ten h the door, soaked and exhausted, having waded through flooded roads and then been blown off her bike She had a badly cut hand and was shaken, but Cat gathered frorin that it would take more even than this to crush her spirit

Jocelyn Forbes turned on her radio hoping to find so weather updates, and she only needed to listen to the storm to know all she needed She clicked on the bedside lamp and reached over to turn the dial She tried for several ain Yesterday she could not twist open a bottle top, now this Arthritis, like her s arthritis

She lay back on the high pillows

Her bedroohtly open and she could see lights in the s of the two houses opposite People would be awake tonight, upthere were no slipped tiles on the roof

But it was not the rain and wind that troubled her She wished she could pick up the phone and talk to someone There was no one Penny would be asleep, her alaret ready in the s, to eat a proper breakfast and dress with care, whether she was in court or chah to telephone after ency? No, though the thoughts she had were as urgent as anything that could come to disturb her from outside