Stories for 100 Days of Writing

The Betrayal

The church clock strikes eight, so those villagers who are awake know without checking that it is six. A cock crows. A body lies on the doorstep of the church, a line of ants marching over the prostrate figure. There is a serene, momentary quiet after the chimes cease. A figure glides past the church wall before the silence is cracked by a baby crying.

Leonara lifted the baby from her cot and settled down in her favourite chair to nurse her. She had a beautiful view of the church from here and just past it was the Hunters' tiny cottage, always adorned with beautiful summer flowers at this time of year. Mrs Hunter supplied and arranged the flowers for the church and her husband was the Church Warden and Groundskeeper. Leonora looked across at the church and something caught her eye, a man sleeping in the doorway, she found herself feeling quite indignant. Why there, she thought, there's a park down the road with benches, even grass. If they want to go and get drunk then why can't they sleep there instead of spoiling her early morning view; the baby moved as if unsettled by her mother's thoughts.

Across the road Evelyn Hunter rose and headed for the kitchen, the clock had struck eight, it made Evelyn think, not everything is as it seems. Terence was already up and out, probably touching up the grounds of the church in readiness for the upcoming flower festival. His teacup stood alongside a still hot pot of tea so with a strange, distant look on her face Evelyn poured herself a cup and returned to bed.

Joyce was woken by that damned clock again, there was no doubt that she hated it here, and would be glad when she could go back to London. She had no idea how one woman could have collected so much stuff and she cursed Jacqueline and Roger, her younger siblings. Why did Jackie have to be in Canada, yes she knew that it was a business deal that only she could close, but surely at a time like this, after their mother's death surely there could have been someone else and Roger, well he had told her he couldn't face going to the house just yet.

Joyce was twenty-eight, her mother had still been young at fifty-one; it was such a shock to lose her so suddenly, she was really healthy and as yet there had been no explanation of how she died, they were waiting for the toxicology results. So, here she was sorting through her mother's papers; after having breakfast she set herself once again to the task. Right at the back of a drawer, she found a small bundle of letters.

She began to read the first one and the content at first surprised her and then shocked her, it appeared her mother had a lover and he was married. Joyce had no idea who Terence was but the affair had been going on for several months, it looked to Joyce as if he was seriously considering leaving his wife for her mother, she sat for a while trying to take it all in.

The minister arrived to prepare for the early morning service and as he parked his car, he saw a man lying in front of the church. As he approached him, he felt there was something wrong. He had assumed the man was drunk but the way he was sprawled out seemed very strange, as he reached him he was shocked to see that it was Terence Hunter, there were ants everywhere and he brushed them away so that he could see if Terence had a pulse, even though he was already certain that he was dead. The police were called but they were perplexed because there was no obvious cause of death, they would have to wait and see what the autopsy would show. In the meantime, Evelyn would have to be told and neighbours would have to be interviewed so PC James was duly sent to do the interviews


Sergeant Grain then set about the unenviable task of telling Evelyn the news. He knew the couple quite well and he was shocked to see Terence lying there that morning. As he arrived at the cottage, he knocked on the door and as he did so, it opened, it was worrying as this wasn't normal and he began to feel concern for both his safety and that of Evelyn. He moved warily into the house looking for any signs of an intruder, he found nobody in the main area of the house and so headed for the bedroom. He hadn't found an intruder so far, but he hadn't found Evelyn either. A quick glance out of the window showed she wasn't in her garden, so he continued on to the bedroom hoping he would just find her asleep and that Terence had just left the door open. He gently opened the bedroom door and was stunned by what he found.

Evelyn had not been able to explain her husband's odd behaviour over the past seven or eight months, she wasn't sure exactly when things changed, it was gradual, he just didn't seem the same and she couldn't figure it out. Then about two months ago, she was cleaning out one of those annoying cupboards, one of those that get overlooked and only sorted once a year and she found a bundle of letters. She began to read and her blood ran cold, her life as she knew it was over, what would people say when they found out, where would her standing in this village be after this, she just got so angry and then a sudden calm came over her and she knew exactly what to do.

Evelyn sorted the problem, or at least she thought she had and she expected Terence to go back to the way he was, now that she was gone; but he was morose and angry, he refused to have any conversations at all with her and gradually she realised that she had lost him and this was something she wasn't prepared to live with. Last night she had washed up the teapot and after it was dry, she added a little something to the bottom of the teapot and then put in two tea bags ready for the morning.

When Sergeant Grain opened the door, Evelyn was sitting in bed, grey like the mist with a note on the bed beside her...