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Rosie's Diamond: Chapter 3
The story so far: Vic Bannerman stepped off the bus. It was the last bus and it was dark and raining. He had a long walk ahead of him.
The story so far: Vic Bannerman stepped off the bus. It was the last bus and it was dark and raining. He had a long walk ahead of him.
Rosemary van der Velde had left England many years ago when she had married a South African businessman to live in Johannesbourg.
She had no reason to suspect that his business was anything but legitimate.
When he died suddenly of a heart attack she moved back to England and bought a house in the Cotswolds.
There was no other man in her life and she had no interest in anyone apart from Rod,her dead husband.
Chapter 3
Wulfrum, although referred to as a town, was little more than a very large village, little more than two thousand people lived there and most of the working population travelled the fifteen or so miles each way to Cheltenham every working day.
Consequently Wulfrum was a very quiet and peaceful place to live. It was not much busier on a Saturday than on a weekday as there were no large supermarkets in the town and people would again travel to Cheltenham for their weekly grocery shopping.
It did, however, have seven pubs most of which were olde worlde and full of character. All but one of them provided bed and breakfast facilities to visitors to the Cotswolds and for those travelling on to Devon , Cornwall and South Wales. Several private houses also provided this service.
Rosemary's house, Wulfrum Manor, was one of the houses that used to offer bed and breakfast before it was sold, but that would never happen again. She had no need for the money and even less need for all the hassle it would bring.
She had had the wall around the property repaired as necessary. Even though the wall was about nine feet high she had three strands of barbed wire added to it. It was built of stone which left many footholds for anyone wanting to climb over. Hopefully the barbed wire would alleviate that possibility. The old iron gates were removed and new electrically operated steel ones replaced them. Lights were added to each side of the driveway at 10-yard intervals and movement lights installed over the front and rear doors. A security phone was installed from the gate to the house.
The town itself was a friendly place and Wulfrum Manor seemed to be the only contradiction to this. It really wasn't. It was more a case of her being a stranger in a small town and having no connections, either business or family, with that town.
The people grew to look upon her as an eccentric and left her to her own devices. They never got to know that her world had collapsed when Rod had died and that nothing could ever take his place. Had they known they may have looked upon her with some sympathy rather than just another rich woman who cared nothing for anyone but herself.
Sad, because she didn't really care much for herself at all and the townspeople never knew that she was the reason that their fundraising efforts always took in far more money than they ever used to.
Rosemary insisted that she remained anonymous.
She had so much money, what else could she do with it.
The town itself was mainly a tourist town and the high street had a preponderance of shops selling souveniers, postcards and pottery from local potteries. The souvenier shops were generously interspersed with tearooms selling clotted cream and scone teas.
During the winter they were quiet and some of them even closed but the high street came alive during the summer months and all the shops and tearooms made a good living and helped the school kids get some work experience during the holidays and weekends.
The high street was lined with trees, not big ones, but at the south end was a large green on which grew three huge horse chestnut trees that provided summer shade for anyone who needed it.
A small stream ran along the back of the green and the sound of running water added to the peaceful setting.
The tearoom at the side of the green was probably the busiest and most successful of all of them.
In the evenings when the tearoom closed the green became the habitat of the drinkers from the Ploughmans Arms. The bar staff were compelled to constantly police it for empty glasses and bottles left behind by the few uncaring drinkers who could not be bothered to return them.
Although the pub did not have a license to cover drinking on the green the local police had long given up trying to stop people from taking their drinks outside and now used the common sense approach that if there was no trouble they would turn a blind eye. There never had been any trouble on the green as only the visitors seemed to drink there and they usually only had one or two.
The main street was pretty much it for shops and pubs. There were a couple of pubs away from the main street which suited the locals in so much as they could get away from the tourists in the summer. In the winter months it didn't really matter that much were they drank; very few tourists were around.
There was a square behind the main street that was home for a few clothing shops, a hardware shop and the only food shop in the town that anywhere near approached supermarket proportions. It was handy for the locals, especially the older ones, who didn't feel like the drive into Cheltenham and for picking up the odd item they had forgotten when they had been there.
It suited Rosemary. She minded her business and the townspeople minded theirs.
All in all she considered that she had chosen well.
Come back next week to read the next gripping installment ...
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Weather for Grantham
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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