Free The Passions of Bronwyn by Martina Martyn

the villagers as Horrid Horace as he was not the nicest person in the village and was rude to almost everyone he came across.  He was also extremely bad tempered and would blow up at the smallest thing.  It seemed there was a good chance he could have killed Mr Charles if he had known about Mr Charles and Annie.
    Constable Wilson went to see farmer Jenkins and was with him for a long time.  When he came back, they all asked him what he thought.  It couldn’t have been farmer Jenkins,’ he told them, ‘he and Annie were on a neighbouring farm all that day and the farmer confirmed it.’ 
    ‘Does he know about Annie and Mr Charles?’ Wyn asked him. 
    ‘No,’ he replied, ‘I didn’t think he needed to know, it would just cause more problems.’  They all breathed a large sigh of relief, at least Mrs Brompton would be spared that information, she had enough on her plate.  Constable Jenkins now had a huge problem though, after asking around he knew there were dozens of possible suspects as Mr Charles owed money to a lot of people, so he went back to the barn with extra men to see if he could find any other clues.
    The next day the Undertaker brought Mr Charles back to the house where he was put into the front parlour in his temporary coffin while the funeral was being arranged.  Mr Carter and Mrs Danvers were both helping Mrs Brompton with this as she was too upset to do it on her own. All the relatives had to be informed and cards were written and posted, the cards and the envelopes they were put in, had a black edge to them so that the person receiving them knew that someone had died even before they opened the envelope.  Three days later Mr Charles was put into his permanent coffin.  The front parlour was already full of flowers that neighbours and villagers had brought to show their respect for Mr Charles and it smelt lovely in there.  He was in an open coffin and most of the villagers had come to see him out of curiosity.   The Undertaker had done a good job on him and had dressed him in his best morning suit.  Mrs Brompton had taken to sitting in there with Mr Charles for hours just talking to him.  They all felt very sad for her.
    There were several tradesmen coming to the house as Mrs Brompton, Miss Catherine and even the servants had to have mourning dress. Mrs Brompton and Miss Catherine were to have dresses made of silk in deepest black with a full black veil, the female servants were also to have black dresses made and the men were to have dark suits along with black gloves, hatbands and cravats.  Mrs Davis was also busy making preparations for the funeral tea and the butcher was a frequent visitor to the house. There was to be joints of meat, cider, ale, pies and cakes.  She was keeping Wyn and Betty very busy as she had a lot of preparation and cooking to do.  ‘I’ll be very happy when this this funeral is over,’ she kept telling them. 
    ‘So will I,’ muttered Betty after Mrs Davis had shouted at her again for some imagined mistake.
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    A few days later William was sent to the station to pick up Miss Catherine who had come back to attend her father’s funeral.  There had been no further clues as to who had killed Mr Charles and Constable Wilson had almost given up hope of ever finding the culprit.  Wyn was out in the yard when William brought the carriage back. 
    ‘How is she?’ Wyn asked him. 
    ‘She’s very upset and hardly said a word the whole journey,’ William told her.  ‘She looks terrible, this has obviously affected her badly.’ 
    Just then a man crept around the corner of the stables.  ‘Look at that,’ whispered Wyn, ‘it’s the ghost of Frank Cooper that Betty saw.’ 
    ‘Where?’ asked William.  The man had gone and William had missed seeing him.  ‘You and Betty are seeing things,’ he added. 
    ‘I’m not seeing things,’ Wyn retorted, ‘I did just see him.’ 
    ‘It’s probably a trick of the light that makes it look