Free Gordon Williams by The Siege of Trencher's Farm--Straw Dogs

get round me that way. My mother was right, damn her, we should never have got married. I’m no good to you.”
    “Oh shut up. It’s time you were getting Karen ready for the party. You’ll get over this, it’s only a mood. It’s affecting both of us living here. This isn’t our house, we hardly own a single thing in it. Maybe we made a mistake coming –”
    “No, the mistake was a lot earlier.”
    “Oh Louise, don’t say things like that. You’ll only regret them afterwards. I’ll go and find Karen.”
    As usual she felt cheated and enraged. The saintly bastard.
    When she and Karen drove away from the house she did not wave or smile to George, who stood on the little path at the front door, watching the car tyres send up little spumes of soft snow. Even after the car had gone out of sight up the lane he still stood there, snowflakes settling on his chest and shoulders...
    Frank Pawson told the ambulance-driver he was in a hurry to get back to Two Waters.
    “We’ll make it by four, easy,” said the driver. “I’m in a hurry myself, the road might get blocked up if it starts snowing again.”
    In the back Henry Niles looked tired.
    “You’d better lie down on the bench, Henry my old son,” saidPawson. “Have a kip, you’ll be home soon. I know, I’ll strap you down, you won’t get bounced about so much.”
    “That’s a good idea,” said Henry Niles, as though he was a small boy being introduced to a new game. As Frank Pawson fastened the buckle he felt like apologising to the poor little bastard. It wasn’t fair, was it, the way things turned out for different people? Here he was fair laughing, things couldn’t be better, and here was poor old Henry, a lunatic. Never had a chance, poor bastard. Still, Henry was lucky in one way – there was a time when they might have hung him, lunatic or not.
    “All right then, Henry? Have a bit of a snooze.” He might have been tucking in a baby. He sat back on the other bench and thought about Kate Grady. It had turned out better than he’d hoped. She fancied him, they were at the right age, she was a grown woman and she knew what she was going into, nurses made great wives, life couldn’t have turned out better. Christ, wouldn’t her face be a caution when he told her? He thought of all the brilliantly vicious things he would say, just as he was leaving, pay her back for all her evil. He felt the ambulance moving fast. Put your foot down, matey, don’t waste a second...
    The ambulance was doing about forty when it came to the lefthand bend at the top of the twisting slope down to Fairwater Ford. It was then the snowflakes began to fly on to the windscreen, hundreds of fast-moving limpets seizing a foot-hold. Like many professionals, the driver didn’t immediately switch on his windscreen-wipers.
    When he saw the snow would stick, he flicked the switch. His vision was obscured.
    The glass cleared. He was about ten yards past the point where he would normally have slowed down and applied slight brakepressure to go into the bend. He braked.
    The ambulance went into a skid. There was no room for him to drive into the skid. Instead of taking the corner to the left, the ambulance slid, side on, at the low bank on the right hand side.
    It hit the bank, which was only eighteen inches high. The impact on the offside wheels sent the vehicle toppling, roof first, over the bank. It turned over once – twice – three times – on the steep slope. Then it came to a standstill, resting on its side, half-way down the incline.
    It took Henry Niles some moments to understand that he was hanging off the bench with a leather belt round his chest. Pawson lay beneath him, not moving. Henry Niles was confused. The strap made it difficult to breathe.
    “Mr. Pawson? It’s hurting me.”
    Pawson lay still. Henry began to whimper. His fingers could make no impression on the metal buckle. He struggled, his legs hanging over Pawson’s head. Then he slipped through the belt and