Dark Waters Read Online Free

John. He would have seen your father last night, going out?’
    â€˜You must ask him.’
    Mary-Ann’s voice had tightened up, as if this conversation was becoming too much to bear. So I turned from her to her sister.
    â€˜And where exactly would your father go in his search for the moon in the water?’
    â€˜Down to the ferry stage, Cousin. He got a clear view of the water from there.’
    â€˜Did you not worry about him wandering out that way, inebriated?’
    â€˜He knew it as well as the way from his hand to his mouth. We thought—’
    â€˜We thought he could come to no harm,’ butted in Mary-Ann, ‘like you just said, Cousin Titus. We know better now, but too late.’
    As they sometimes do, and in this case appropriately, the words ‘too late’ sounded like a funeral bell. We sat quietly for a while, feeling their resonance.
    â€˜He will miss the election, too,’ said Grace, sighing deeply. ‘He had plans. He spoke of going up in fellowship with a gang of folk from Middleforth Green and Walton, to do their voting. He would have so liked it. Oh, well.’
    She sighed again. I got up softly and reached for my hat.
    â€˜We must go back to town ourselves now, Cousins, and be about our business. But I am sure Elizabeth will be down for a visit as soon as she hears the sorry news. I wish we had not been the bearers of it.’
    In farewell, Luke kissed both the young ladies’ hands. I am not sure if this was, in etiquette, the correct gesture, but it worked its magic. Mary-Ann smiled and Grace’s cheeks again faintly reddened.
    â€˜About the inquest,’ I said, ‘we’ll begin at noon, I think. And don’t worry, I’ll tell them not to expect too much in the way of victuals … the jury, I mean.’
    But Mary-Ann stood and fixed me with an intense, beady look. She had recovered some of her fight.
    â€˜Cousin, we’ll victual them royally, if that is what they require. We are glad of the business, aren’t we, Sister?’
    With a momentary smile and nod, Grace tearfully concurred.
    â€˜And I will come over a little before,’ I went on, ‘to speak with both of you and also any of your staff, especially John, who might have information about what happened last night. That way we can get the whole thing over and done. You will be able to bury him on Wednesday.’
    *   *   *
    The ferry stage was 70 yards downstream of the inn, along a continuation of the road from Walton. This road carried on westward along the riverbank to the riverside settlement of Penwortham and then, by a looping course, south towards Liverpool. It was a pitiful road, more like a lane, and the going was both rutted and potted.
    â€˜For a very drunk man in the dark this might be a challenging walk,’ observed Fidelis.
    â€˜Antony must have been driven by a strong desire to come out here every night.’
    â€˜Is desire the right word, Titus?’
    â€˜I can’t think of another.’
    â€˜I can. He was in an unhappy state at the end. “Mush” was his daughter’s interesting word to describe his mind. But has “mush” desire, reasoning – will, even? No. Mush doesn’t drive a man to do anything. It can’t make plans, it can’t look forward. But daily living requires these things. There must be some kind of structure in the mind, I think, or life collapses.’
    Once Fidelis got hold of a theme, the jaws of his intellect bit so hard that they could not easily let go.
    â€˜Well,’ I floundered, ‘Antony got by because … I don’t know … others – such as his daughters – made the frame of his life for him, maybe.’
    â€˜To an extent they did. But I am talking about something more fundamental than that. A person needs an inner skeleton to keep its shape, or it too becomes inchoate and falls apart. A suit of armour, say, worn