He has had enough of veiled words, is a writing prompt from my current work in progress, as yet untitled. The section it comes from is shown below. The story is a sequel to River Witch and a dual timeline.
Aaron is reluctant to push his horse in the heat. This duty he has imposed on himself has waited a decade. A few hours further delay count for nothing, except now he is on his way he wishes to be done, finished. Whatever the outcome.
He has covered the few miles from home to return through Shrewsbury. Traffic filling the Welsh bridge slowed his pace across the river, and Aaron avoided any glances into the water, shutting shut his ears to siren songs. He has had enough of veiled words, whether spoken by river nymphs or old women whose milky eyes see too much of what may or may not be.
Fields of late still-green wheat, barley the colour of ripe limes, and the low thick leaves of potatoes lay beyond the hedges lining the road. Meadows where clouds of insects hover and butterflies glitter in the sun break the green-gold with yellow, purple, blue and red wild flowers.
Aaron travelled this country in his early journeys with Marianne, for it was here they began their wanderings seeking to use the skills Mother Lovell taught them – to cure a cough with tea brewed from dried dull-gold verbascum flowers, or to ease the pain of boils with a mush of the leaves. To offer willow bark as comfort to the dying. Or, when asked, a potion of Lady’s Mantle to tempt a new love, or a muslin bag of dried feverfew to give protection and inner strength. Hester wears such a charm, a new one every two or three years since the first Aaron gave her in the early years she studied lore with him in the tumbling down cottage above the river. She is due a new one soon. Aaron will make three, giving Ellen and Rose their own small protections and encouraging their inner strength.
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HE HAS HAD ENOUGH OF VEILED WORDS
“Are you threatening me?” Ted looks squarely at his adversary. He has had enough of veiled words.
“No guv’nor. Wouldn’t presume to do that.” The scruffily dressed man cowered in a corner of the room, cheesecutter cap grasped shakily in a scrawny paw.
“Then what do you mean by ‘pay the price’?” Ted demanded.
“Nothing guv. Just that you’ve got a family – two daughters. Wouldn’t want to see anything happen to them, now would we?”
Ted crossed the room in three strides and grabbed the man by his throat.
“Are you saying if I don’t meet this extortionate demand, something might happen to them?”
“Not up to me, guv,” the man whimpered. “I’m just the messenger.”
“Well then, messenger. You go back and message this.” Ted was becoming increasingly angry and frustrated.
“If anything happens to any member of my family – there will be all hell to pay. You understand me?”
“Yes, guv.” The man escaped Ted’s slightly loosened grip, gasping desperately for air. “Now clear off before I change my mind and take it out on your scrawny hide!!”
Cheesecutter cap slunk quickly to the door and disappeared, leaving Ted to ponder recent events.
Trouble was in recent months his business had run into serious financial difficulties and, in order to stay afloat, Ted was forced to borrow a significant amount of money at exorbitant interest rates from a somewhat dubious source.
And now they wanted their money back – all of it in one lump sum and twice the amount he had originally borrowed.
His bank would not come to the party. Did not want to know him at the time and, in the intervening period, had not changed its mind.
Ted really had nowhere to turn. As if things weren’t bad enough before when he was forced into this unenviable situation, now they were just impossible.
He slammed his fist into his office desk in total frustration as he tried to work out a solution that totally escaped him.
Typical of these types of arrangements, Ted couldn’t even confront the person who had lent him the money to ask for more time to pay because he was concealed behind an organisation that only employed thugs to do its dirty work.
Ted knew the scrawny cheeescutter cap man was just the emissary. The real trouble would start when a gorilla or gorillas entered his office and started throwing their weight around.
Lucky for him, as a former SAS soldier, he could take care of himself in these situations.
However, that wasn’t going to help his family if he wasn’t there to protect them at the time.
Ted went to his office safe and pulled out his Smith and Wesson pistol. Time now to take preventative action as he strode out the office door.