Before she rings off, she tells Janet about the Grey Lady email.
憮Beware the Grey Lady??says Janet. 慦ho could have sent that??
慖 don抰 know,?says Ruth. 慖t gave me a bit of a jolt, remembering the story you told me. The bricked-up house and the girl eating her parents?flesh. All that.?She shivers although the garden is sunny and the birds are singing from the apple tree.
慏on抰 worry, Ruth,?says Janet. 慣he Grey Lady can抰 hurt you.?
When Kate has finished her lesson, they go out for a brisk walk across the Saltmarsh. Kate is in a better mood today and happily gathers 慽nteresting grasses?to go in her Nature Book. It reminds Ruth of collecting samphire with Peter. Maybe she should contact him again? They always got on well and it抯 time that Ruth stopped waiting for Nelson, consciously or not.
Back at the house, Kate embarks on some homework set by Mrs Obuya. Ruth opens her laptop to see the photograph sent by Janet. She has opened a new folder on her computer and has also allocated a yellow file marked 慔ouse?which contains the original photograph plus several printed-out pages. Ruth is a born academic; nothing is real until it has a file.
Janet抯 photograph shows the cottages, brick-fronted, with a horse-drawn cart in front. The sign on the cart says 慉dnam抯 Beer?and this was clearly the focus of the picture. Ruth knows that the local ale ?a favourite with her ex-partner Frank ?was first brewed in the 1870s. Why was the dray standing outside her cottage? Were the owners big drinkers? Ruth prints out the picture and puts it next to her mother抯 photograph, the pink houses, the boxy car. Peering closely she can see a name plaque on the middle house. Does it say 慣he Cabin? She can抰 be sure. The plaque isn抰 there in the nineteenth-century photo. Who gave the house its cosy but slightly sinister name?
Ruth has discovered that the three houses on New Road were built in 1860 and were described, in the county records, as 慺armworkers?cottages? Ruth purchased her house in 1998 from the estate of the late Alfred Barton. The 1939 census shows that the house was occupied by Alf Barton, described as 憀abourer? his wife Dorothy 憇eamstress?and two children ?John, 16, and Matthew, 14. John and Matthew would be in their nineties if they were alive now. Ruth doesn抰 discount this; people in Norfolk seem to live for ever. It抯 also possible, of course, that one or both sons died in the war. The thought makes her sad. She senses a definite fellow feeling with the family who once lived in this tiny house. The question is, did Ruth抯 mother also have a link with them? And, if so, what was it?
Who would have been living in the house in 1963? Alf, judging by the title deeds, but who else? Ruth logs into the archives of the local newspaper, as Janet had suggested. She puts her address into the search box and, immediately, an article from 1970 pops up.
Big-hearted Foster Mum Dies
Tributes have been paid to Dot Barton, of 2 New Road, Saltmarsh, who died of cancer at the age of 68. As well as being mother to two sons, John and Matthew, and grandmother of three, Dot also fostered more than a hundred children. 慜ur door was always open,?says Dot抯 husband, Alf （70）。 慏ot was so kind,?says Alma McLaughlin （24）， who was fostered as a teenager. 慡he really made a difference to my life.?Dot抯 funeral will be held at St Peter抯 Church, Gaywood, on Wednesday 17th June.
Hundreds of children? Ruth realises that this is over a period of at least thirty years but she suddenly has a vision of small figures swarming over the tiny house, like an illustration from The Old Woman Who Lived in A Shoe.
慚um!?says a commanding voice. Ruth turns to face her one and only child.
慪es, darling,?she says, trying to channel the caring spirit of Dot Barton.
慖抦 bored,?says Kate. 慍an I watch TV??
Judy is also working from home. It抯 been decided that only a skeleton staff will remain at the police station. The boss goes in every day, of course, and the rest of the team will take it in turns. Today Tony is sitting alone in the shared area, deprived of any outlet for his relentless sociability. Nelson will be closeted in his office ?doing God knows what ?and Leah will be bringing him cups of coffee and answering the printer抯 querulous demands for fresh paper. Judy has set up a workstation in her bedroom. It抯 not ideal because the rooms in the cottage are small and hers and Cathbad抯 is almost completely taken up by their antique brass double bed. Judy has managed to fit in a small table and chair, but she is now wedged beside the window and her Zoom background shows only a flowered curtain and a portrait of Thing, painted by Miranda, stuck on the yellow wall. It doesn抰 exactly say 憁odern police professional? But Cathbad has commandeered the kitchen for home-schooling and the spare room is now full of Maddie and her myriad possessions.