It gave her the idea for another book, and she fumbled in her handbag for a pen to jot it down. Funerary customs from ancient Laverstone to modern times.
The brief flurry of scribbling earned her another glare.
Reverend Dodgson introduced the next hymn and the audience stood. As a self-styled witch, Meinwen knew the value of a communal sing-along but the hymns were generally unable to inspire passion in anybody. She stared at the order of service. The Lord’s My Shepherd was much better as a psalm. As a song it suffered from syntax hammered into place to make the verses rhyme. Still, again, it could be worse. She scanned the rest of the sheet. No, All Things Bright And Beautiful was thankfully absent. She’d had enough of that at the First Aberdovey Methodist School. Not that there’d been a second. It was a victim of grammar. It should have read The Aberdovey Methodist First School.
The music died down into a painfully extended end note and they all sat, Meinwen a moment behind the others. Honestly, she just wanted to pay her respects to a friend, not convert to Christianity. Not for the first time she wished Helen had been an agnostic. Humanist funerals were so much more cheering. There were tears, certainly, but none of this doom and gloom. None of this I-am-not-worthy stuff. She glanced at the other people on her row. Two to her right, a girl was busy tapping out a text, her two thumbs a blur of movement. At least she’d put the phone on silent.
Reverend Dodgson began reading Psalm twenty-three. Meinwen groaned, but not as much as when he opened his Bible and began reading from John. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
There was justification for a zombie apocalypse right there. Modern cinema had it all wrong. The undead were just missionaries. If Helen Matthews rose from her coffin there’d be mass heart attacks. Hers too, probably. She was almost surprised he hadn’t read the bit about New Jerusalem from Revelations. It would be quite appropriate, considering this was Eden Gardens, locally known as “New Eden” or “the new cemetery” depending upon whether the speaker approved or not.
The service segued into another hymn. Jerusalem. She could have written this.
By the time they reached the committal, where the priest asked for divine intervention on behalf of the deceased, Meinwen breathed a sigh of relief that the tedium was almost over. The coffin slid slowly out of sight, downward rather than the traditional through a curtain. As a child Meinwen had always imagined the crematorium flames behind the curtain and generally wondered why the material didn’t catch fire.
She was first out when they opened the doors.
It had, mercifully, stopped raining. Although there was a covered area, the roof half-glassed like a Victorian conservatory, much of it was open to the elements. The sky was pendulous with cumulonimbus, a chill wind beating them across the sky like a milkmaid with her cows. Were milkmaids still a career option, or were they Agricultural Livestock Technicians these days? Meinwen wandered across to look at the flowers left by mourners. It hadn’t even occurred to her to bring any. She’d make a donation to charity in their stead.
Some attendees were lighting cigarettes. It explained why much of the mourner’s area was open to the sky. A full conservatory would have been impossible, and illegal, to smoke in. A man she recognized as Helen’s husband made his way to the lychgate leading to the car park, followed by his son and, presumably, his daughter-in-law. Several of the mourners lined up to murmur consolations as they left, some to go to the wake at the Green Hill, others to return to jobs or home.
Meinwen spotted a dark-haired woman in a business suit talking on the phone. She recognized Eden Maguire from the newspaper. They’d done quite an expose on her when the cryotorium first opened amid a flood of protests from people who either thought the process dangerous or who simply didn’t want a new cemetery on the site of the old community college. The woman was trying to keep her voice low while conducting her half of an argument. Several people glanced her way and she gave a half-smile, then slipped back into the building. One of the staff moved in front of the door to prevent any of the mourners returning inside.
Meinwen bit her lip. Although attending the funeral had been her excuse to come here, she had another matter on her mind, the reason she’d been skulking in the garden of rest for almost an hour before the service. She headed to the door but the attendant barred her way. “Can I help you, madam?”
“I just need to go back inside for a moment.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible. Please make your way to the car park via the exit provided.”
“I’d like to speak to Mrs. Maguire.”
He withdrew a small tin from his breast pocket, opened it and handed her a business card. “Appointments can be made during office hours.”
“I want to see her now, though.”
“I’m afraid she’s very busy.”
“This’ll only take a minute or two.” She leaned forward until her lips were all but brushing the dark skin of his ear. “It’s about purchasing a plot.”
“All the same, Madam.” He took her arm and steered her gently toward the exit. “You can either see Emily at reception about it or else make an appointment.”
“Oh, very well.” She straightened her coat and joined the queue at the exit, shaking the hands of Helen’s three favorite people. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I’m sure she’s exactly where she wanted to be.” It was a white lie but it was what one said at a funeral. She leaned forward to brush the cheek of Helen’s widower. He smelled of Old Spice and pipe tobacco and brought a memory of her uncle Gareth before he ran off with the butcher’s wife. “My condolences.”
“Wait.” He clutched at her hand. “You’re Meinwen, aren’t you? From Helen’s book club?”
“That’s right. She’ll be sorely missed. “ Meinwen pressed his hand between hers. “We’ll read an excerpt from Great Expectations in her honor tonight.”
“Yes. That was her favorite. I could never get on with it myself. All those lives ruined.”
“There’s redemption at the end.”
“So the vicar tells me.” He gave her a weak smile. “Look, Helen left you a bequest at the house. Nothing special, mind. A few books and a little award the council gave her when she retired last year. ‘Make sure they go to Meinwen,’ she said. It was very nearly her last words.”
“What were her last words, may I ask?”
“‘What are you doing with that hammer, Donall?’“ He gave a soft chuckle. “I’m only joking. Actually she sat up in bed and said ‘I’ll have a cup of tea and a biscuit’ and then she was gone. Just like that. She didn’t suffer at all.”
“Well, that’s a blessing.” Meinwen freed his hands from her own. “I’ll drop by in a day or two to collect them.”
“You do that, love. You’re not coming to the wake then?”
“I think I’ve intruded enough, Mr. Matthews. I’ll leave you in the good care of your family. Besides, I don’t have any transport.”
“Come on. There always room for one more in the hire cars.”
“Next time, perhaps.” Meinwen squeezed his arm, mentally kicking herself for the phrase.
The next time would probably be his own.
She followed the wall of the building back around to the front passing, curiously, a small children’s playground. While the idea of a playground in a cemetery seemed a little odd, it made sense to keep the boredom of toddlers at bay when visiting deceased relatives. Children were generally more congenial to the idea of ‘talking to grandma’ when it involved a huge slide and roundabout. Meinwen had to exert considerable self-control not to go in herself.
She pushed open the front door and stood for a moment in the reception