Dead Man's Embers Read Online Free PDF

hand a light slap.
    Non smiles at their exchange. ‘We’re celebrating Osian’s seventh birthday,’ she says. They all three look at Osian, but he makes no response to the sound of his name nor to their attention.
    â€˜It’s not really his birthday,’ all-knowing Meg says. ‘It’s the day Tada brought him home for Non so she could have her own baby. We don’t know when his birthday is, really.’
    Her own baby! Non is at a loss to understand from where the notion had come that she had wanted a baby of her own. Had she been needy without being aware of it? And Meg, poor Meg, has still not got over the invasion of this intruder into the family not much more than a year after Non had committed the same crime. ‘He was a tiny baby,’ she says. ‘It’s as close as can be to his real birthday.’ It is also the date Davey had registered as the day of Osian’s birth, along with the two of them as his natural parents. She thinks that must be some sort of crime, too.
    â€˜Happy Birthday, Osian.’ Gwydion raises his cup of tea in a toast to the unblinking boy.
    And as Meg rolls her eyes heavenward and carries on eating her bread and butter a miracle happens that makes Non catch her breath. Osian scrutinises Gwydion’s raised cup, and then raises his own in return. A mirror image. It happens so quickly and quietly that it leaves Non wondering if she has dreamt it. She looks at Gwydion, and he smiles at her and nods. He has always known her thoughts.
    Gwydion turns to Meg. ‘You know,’ he says, ‘if you’re as clever as Non says, when you’re older you could go to university, like me.’
    â€˜Could I?’ Meg stops eating. ‘Could I really, Non?’
    She smiles at Meg. ‘You could if you wanted to, Meg, Why not?’ It is costly enough to send Meg to the County School at Barmouth, but Non fervently believes in the necessity of education. Her own father had been an enthusiastic educator of his daughter. Non had not realised what an eccentric education she had received until her father died and she was sent to school. It had been an education that encouraged her to be curious about everything and to satisfy that curiosity. It had also been an education that made her aware of all the possibilities that were out in the world, most of which she discovered were out of her reach because she was a woman. But surely the War will have changed much of that? Women had done the work of men when the men were away fighting. Non had to give up her work as a teacher at the primary school when she married Davey, but the school had been desperate, she does not think it is too strong a word, desperate to take her back for the duration of the War when male teachers were in short supply. And because of those brave suffragettes, she thinks, she will even be able to vote at the next election.
    â€˜But what for?’ Meg turns to Gwydion. ‘Nain says education is wasted on women. Nain says, Look at Non. And she sent me back here when I said I wanted to go the County School because she didn’t approve.’
    Non thinks this is probably true, but she does not want the child to be troubled by it. Catherine Davies had relinquished Meg – at last – when it became apparent that she would continue her education. ‘Your grandmother couldn’t take care of you and your grandfather,’ she says. ‘We have the room here, and you are our daughter.’
    Meg does not usually draw back from pointing out that she is not Non’s daughter, but she is silent now. It may be that Gwydionis having a mellowing effect on her. Non looks at her nephew, and her love for him warms her. Maybe it is this feeling that makes him appear so handsome to her, so tall and dark-haired and dark-eyed, like one of the characters from the old tales her father used to tell her. But maybe he actually is tall and dark and handsome, she considers, as Meg