Cataindar

CHAPTER TWO AND A HALF

Luisa pushed about, trying to get comfortable amongst what seemed like a thousand pillows and duvets in the Volkswagen Golf. It smelled like dogs even though they didn't have any. Every time she had reproached her mum about the VW her mum would cry, "But darling, what are you talking about? It's a fabulous car! It's never let me down. I would be very interested to see exactly how good you look, young lady, after traveling over one hundred and fifty thousand miles with a family of three on your back!"

Luisa smirked at the thought. Her mum returned from their house after double-checking everything was locked up. Once in the driver's seat she turned back to face them. "Right, kids, are we ready to go? Luisa, make sure your brother's in his seat properly."

Luisa pushed together the buckles, securing Max in his booster seat, making him look like a miniature race-car driver. Next she peeled off the lid to his hummus, ketchup and carrot mix; a Maximus favourite.

The car was hot and stuffy as they drove along the M4 motorway to Wales. Luisa had only met her grandmother twice. She remembered her like a figure in an old painting: distant, dressy, and dusty. Her grandmother's house stood next to a large ruined abbey, deep in the Welsh countryside. Last time she had been there she had been really young, maybe seven? She wrestled with her memory between blinks, each heavier than the last... then woke with a sore neck as the car wheels hit gravel and they began to incline.

"Wow!" Max strained forward to get a better view. "Look, Luisa! A castle!"

Out the window she could see the ruins of the Wynn abbey looming at the top of the hill. The abbey had soaring white buttresses, grandiose arches, and what would have been incredible stained-glass windows, with now just the empty geometric stonework hinting at their patterns. On the tops of the remaining walls perched stone gargoyles of different animals, frozen in their roar, bark or hissing at those below. The roof and floors had long since fallen in, but in their place had grown a large tree, so tall that it rose above the walls, its branches fanned protectively out over the circular centre chapel.

"That's not a castle, darling." Luisa's mum explained. "That's the abbey."

Far to the left of the abbey, through a garden lay a separate house. Though small by comparison to the abbey, it was a well-built two-storey grey stone house, with a slate roof inset with squat windows and two grand bay windows on each side of the front door.

Luisa spotted a quick movement behind one of the squat windows in the roof. As she strained to see what it was, her mum sang out, "Alright guys, we are here!"

Luisa tugged at her hefty bag and stood on the road. Shielded by the door, she watched her grandmother glide towards them in a deep, red velvet dress that reached the ground. Her thick grey hair, pulled into a tight bun, highlighted her high eyebrows, sharp nose and firm mouth. Luisa took a few tentative steps out from behind the car. Her grandmother froze as she caught sight of Luisa, blinking like she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. An instant later the surprise was gone, a tight controlled smile replacing it. "Hello, my dear, how are you?" Each word came out clear and precise, with no hint of a Welsh accent.

"I'm okay..." said Luisa, taking half a step back. Apart from you looking at me like I'm a bloody ghost.

Luisa's mum approached and gave her grandmother a kiss on the cheek. "Mother, its wonderful to see you!"

Grandmother didn't so much hug her daughter as put her hands on her waist to regain a more proper distance. "It's good to see you too my dear. Now." The "now" shifted the sentence, like a gear change, from niceties to business. "Please cease that manual work. Your things will be fine here for the moment; you are not in London now. Your brother will be here presently and lugging heavy objects is his domain." Then as an afterthought she added, "Now more than ever."