The Devil's Music
Page 26
‘Can I listen again?’ Andy had said, smoothing her dress. He put his mouth to the fabric and murmured, ‘Shhhh,’ to the baby that would be Susie. ‘Shhhh! We’re having a rest. Lie still. Do you like it when we all sleep together? I do.’
Helen comes to, catching the tail-end of an announcement in Spanish echoing over the tannoy. She should be paying attention. Again, the same female voice speaks, this time with hesitation, in English. The ups and downs of her Spanish accent – the weighty extravagant ‘I’s and back-of-the-throat ‘h’s – lend a flamboyance to the words. ‘Passengers for flight ESY5932 to London, Gatwick should please make their way to gate number fourteen where the plane is preparing to board.’
The sound of the English language, the Spanish woman struggling to reproduce its tonal flatness, conjures up a memory of wheat fields; of moss and furled ferns in copses; high banks of silky ribboned grass.
Under a changeable sky, she will spread a rug on damp grass and make daisy chains with her grandchildren. She will see her son again and perhaps Sarah, the woman Susie has talked about with affection. Helen twists the bracelet on her wrist.
There have been more difficult things in her life than this.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the many who have helped, directly and indirectly, in the writing of The Devil’s Music. For their continuing encouragement and inspiration, thank you to: tutors, colleagues and students, past and present, at the University of Chichester, particularly Vicki Feaver, Stephanie Norgate, Melanie Penycate, Ann Jolly and Maria O’Brien, who, a long time ago and over many weeks, read the beginnings of this novel; writing friends Alison Macleod, Karen Stevens and Jackie Buxton, and also Jill Dawson, Jane Rogers and Lesley Glaister, all of whom very generously gave much appreciated input at various later stages.
Thank you also to: Erica Jarnes at Bloomsbury; Penelope Beech for her knot drawings; my neighbour, Sarah Parrish, for her driftwood fence and lost-on-the-beach shoe tree; Vera Lemprez, for the tango; Mike Howarth (The Ropeman (www.ropeman.co.uk), for his knots; Lucas Cooper (www.insightstudio.co.uk), for technical input with knot pictures and the glossary; my godmother, for her name; and my parents, for the books and stories.
For all their love and support at home, thank you to my three daughters, Katie, Stephanie and Natalie Miller (thanks for the photos too, Nat) and to David Rusbridge.
Most especially, I owe many, many thanks to three people: my agent, Hannah Westland for her warmth, advice and enthusiastic belief in the novel before it was even finished; my editor, Helen Garnons-Williams, whose perceptive criticism was the best sort for a writer, pointing out what needed to be added/subtracted but leaving me with freedom to handle the details; and Kathryn Heyman, who, with her gift for language and her trademark energy and humour, has been such an inspirational and stimulating mentor and friend.
A Note on the Author
Jane Rusbridge lives on the coast in West Sussex with her husband, a farmer, and three of their five children. She taught at primary and preschool levels before returning to education herself as a mature student to read English at the University of Chichester, where she went on to gain an MA in Creative Writing. For the past ten years she has worked at the University of Chichester as an Associate Lecturer in English.
Also Available by Jane Rusbridge
Rook
‘A novel of layers and textures, patiently crafted, and beautifully finished’ Katie Ward, author of Girl Reading
Nora, a cellist, returns home to the Sussex coast with memories she must banish in order to survive: a charismatic teacher with gold-flecked eyes, a mistake she cannot unmake. Her mother Ada is waiting: a fragile, bitter woman who distils for herself a glamorous past as she smokes French cigarettes in her unkempt garden. A documentary maker has arrived in the village to shoot a film about King Cnut and his illegitimate daughter, whose body lies beneath the flagstones of Bosham church. As he digs up tales of ancient battles, Ada and Nora find themselves face to face with the shameful secrets they had so carefully buried.
A mesmerising story of family, legacy and turning back the tides, Rook beautifully evokes the shifting Sussex sands, and the rich seam of history lying just beneath them.
‘Rusbridge’s sympathetic and respectful handling of a sensitive issue conveys an emotional impact that resonates long after the closing pages’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Beautifully describes the landscape of the Sussex coast, echoing with battles, buried bodies and Nora as she finds her own way of working through the knots of her life and those close to her’ Guardian Readers’ Books of the Year
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney
Copyright © 2009 by Jane Rusbridge
First published in Great Britain 2009
Illustrations by Penelope Beech
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP
www.bloomsbury.com
The entries in the glossary are from The Ashley Book of Knots © 1944 Clifford W Ashley, used by kind permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc., except the entry for the Royal Crown, which is from Knots, Ties and Splices by Tom Burgess and Commander John Irving, used by kind permission of Taylor & Francis Group, and the entry for the French Shroud Knot, which is from Knots, Splices and Rope Work by A Hyatt Verrill, used by kind permission of Dover Publications.
This electronic edition published 2009 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
The right of Jane Rusbridge to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
eISBN: 978-1-4088-0328-8
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