Free Appointed to Die by Kate Charles

foundation in reality. Just then the bell went to signal the end of the interval. Canon Kingsley, who had remained very quiet up till then, looked at his watch. ‘That means we’d better be making a move, Lucy my dear.’
    â€˜It was nice meeting you, Lucy,’ said Todd immediately, having learned her Christian name. ‘I guess we’ll be seeing you around this weekend.’
    â€˜Yes, I’m sure.’
    As they all turned and moved back in the direction of the cathedral, Lucy looked towards the table where they’d sat with Jeremy. He was still there, all alone and looking unhappy; she was overcome with guilt at the way she’d treated him. ‘I won’t be a minute, Daddy,’ she said impulsively, ‘but I must go and apologise to Jeremy for . . . something I said.’
    CHAPTER 6
    Â Â Â Â  Such as are planted in the house of the Lord: shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God.
    Psalm 92.12
    On Saturday morning, Malbury Cathedral – or to give it its proper title, the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Malo and St Thomas à Becket at Malbury – was the scene of an almost unprecedented frenzy of activity as the Friends of the Cathedral, in the form of various flower-arrangers, sprang into action. Ordinarily everything would have been completed the evening before the flower festival, but the performance in the south transept on Friday night had precluded that, and had necessitated a very early start on the Saturday. The flower festival would open at noon, and all must be in readiness by then.
    Rowena Hunt, as head of the Friends, had been there first, preparing the battle-stations. The arrangers arrived to find their spots clearly labelled by name and provided with all that was needful (save the flowers themselves): appropriate containers and lumps of pre-soaked Oasis.
    Things were already well under way when John Kingsley arrived to take the eight o’clock service. The service would be held in the Lady Chapel, in the centre of the retro-choir at the far east end of the cathedral, so the majority of the arrangers would be unhampered by it; only Evelyn Marsden, who was doing the Lady Chapel flowers, was affected.
    Lucy had accompanied her father to the cathedral that morning. It was a gesture that pleased and somewhat surprised Canon Kingsley; he’d protested mildly that it wasn’t at all necessary and suggested that she have a lie-in instead, but she had insisted that she wanted to come.
    She was a bit surprised herself. Although she had, obviously, grown up in the Church, she had reacted against her upbringing in a drastic way: at eighteen she had married, and almost immediately divorced, a very worldly and unsuitable man. Thereafter, during her years of living on her own in London, her connection with the Church had been tenuous, and her attendance sporadic. But in the year that she’d known David, and especially in the five months since they’d become lovers, both her attitudes and her habits had been changing gradually. The Church was very important to David, and David was supremely important to Lucy. So she’d begun to go with him to church during their weekends together, and his appreciation for the beauty of worship – and the buildings where worship took place – had communicated itself to her. She thought about it now, as she sat in the Lady Chapel waiting for the service to begin. A year ago, she reflected, she wouldn’t have come with her father. A year ago she wouldn’t have recognised the gilded English altar and the other chapel furnishings as being the work of Sir John Ninian Comper, and absolutely typical of the work that great church architect and furnisher did during the 1920s. Now she did recognise it, with a small shock of pleasure. She would have to remember to tell David about it, Lucy thought.
    David had really wanted to come with her this weekend. He shared Lucy’s love of music, and while