Past Reason Hated [antikvár]

1mONESnow fell on Swainsdale for the first time that year a few , i days before Christmas. Out in the dale, among the more remote farms and hamlets, the locals would be cursing. A heavy snowfall could mean lost sheep and blocked roads. In past years, some places had been cut off for as long as i five weeks. But in Eastvale, most of those crossing the market square on the evening of 22 December felt a surge of joy as the fat flakes drifted down, glistening in the gaslight as they fell, to form a lumpy white carpet over the cobblestones.Detective Constable Susan Gay paused on her way back to the station from Joplin's newsagents. Outside the Norman church stood a tall Christmas tree, a gift from the Norwegian town with which Eastvale was twinned. The hghts winked on and off, and its tapered branches bent , under the weight of half an inch of snow. In front of the tree, a group of children in red choirgowns stood singing; ''Once in Royal David's City'. Their aho voices, fragile but clear, seemed especially fitting on such a beautiful winter's;'evening.i' : ^Susan tilted her head back and let the snowflakes melt j' V, on her eyehds. Two weeks ago she would not have allowed j U; herself to do something so spontaneous and frivolous. But now that she was Detective Constable Gay, she could afford