Killing Cousins Read Online Free Page B

sea.' He pointed to a rubble of stones. 'Over there. That's the Dwarfie Ha'. A prehistoric settlement - Stone Age - or so I'm told.'
    'Dwarfie Ha' - strange name,' said Faro, pausing for a closer look.
    Vince laughed. 'No one knows what it was called originally. It's always been the Dwarfie Ha' because of the size of the rooms and their height Where there was any roof left, a stone slab, less than four feet high, confirmed old legends that the first creatures who inhabited these islands before man were supernatural beings, trolls or hogben. And, since even to utter their names could bring disaster, they were referred to as the dwarfie folk.'
    Faro walked to the edge of the neatly regulated stone maze of tiny rooms.
    'Isn't it marvellous? Each with its stone cupboard, bed annexe and fireplace.'
    'Amazing. How were they discovered?'
    'Oh, a great storm during the last century washed the topsoil away. The subsequent excavations unearthed cooking pots, jewellery and even strings of broken beads, just as their occupants left them thousands of years ago, as if the people had fled in a great panic.'
    Faro shaded his eyes, looking toward the horizon once almost continuously occupied by dragon-headed Viking ships in search of plunder and women to breed more warriors. 'An invader from the sea, do you think?'
    Vince smiled impishly. 'Possibly some of your own ancestors chased them away, if looks have anything to do with it. And all you need for the part is a horned helmet, Stepfather.'
    Faro's smiling glance changed into a long-suffering sigh. Vince was riding his favourite hobby-horse again.
    'Have a good look at the Dwarfie Ha' before you leave,' Vince continued. 'Probably your last chance. The cliff erosion is chewing away a few feet every year now, so unless its progress can be halted it's doomed to tumble over the cliff into oblivion any day now, I'm afraid.'
    As they entered the kirkyard, tombstones leaned dangerously in the direction of the cliff edge and wreaths of flowers marked the melancholy site of Thora Balfray's recent interment.
    Near the Balfray vault Vince pointed to a large flat stone obviously of great antiquity. 'Another valuable artefact. According to Francis this once marked the centre, the place of sacrifice, of a prehistoric stone circle. The rest I presume has vanished into the sea long ago.'
    Running a finger over the crude tree branches cut deep into the stone which led to a circular hole at the base of its trunk, he said, 'Interesting carvings, amazing how they've survived wind and weather. The Odin Stone, Stepfather. You must have heard of it?'
    'Ah yes. I was brought to see it once, long ago, when I was a small child. I could have been no more than three when my father told me its grisly history, that the hole was reputedly to catch the victim's blood. I was very impressed and scared.'
    Vince smiled. 'It had its good side, too, right up until recent times. According to Francis, the stone had magical powers of life-giving and resurrection. The islanders carried their sick and dying folks here and held vigil.'
    Faro shivered. 'What a splendid test. If exposure to the elements didn't kill them off then they would have survived anyway.'
    'You're very cynical, Stepfather.'
    Faro shook his head and said drily, 'I was merely thinking, how unfortunate that Francis did not try it on his wife.'
    Vince gave him a hard look and said reproachfully, 'Francis has strong feelings for this place and its history. He would like to remove the Dwarfie Ha' stone by stone and have it taken to a safer site inland. But that would cost a lot of money. He had the same sort of idea about the family vault.' He sighed. 'Thora's will be the penultimate burial. When he dies, he has left orders for it to be sealed up for good.'
    A sixteenth-century sarcophagus emblazoned with all the paraphernalia of death, skull and crossbones, weeping angels and hourglasses, had been almost obliterated by time and weather. Below, the Balfray vault was