The Heart of the Country [antikvár]

The Wages of SinOh, the wages of sin!Natahe Harris sinned, and her husband Harry left for work one fine morning and didn't come back.The morning was fine only temporarily. You know what those mornings are, just before the rain sets in? Bright and glittery around the edges; altogether too bright for safety, with a pale blue sky arching much too high above, and beyond the arch heaven knows what, God or the Devil. And before you know it black clouds begin to edge up all around the horizon, like muddy water welling from a blocked drain, and close the sky over with cloud, drizzle and depression, and your quivering ghmpse of eternity, good or bad, is gone. There's just the bus to catch or the washing up to get on with. Just such a too bright morning it was, when Harry Harris left for work and didn't return, leaving Natahe Harris well and truly in the shit, if you'll excuse me.But well and truly there she was, floundering in the excreta (if the word seems less offensive) the human race spits out behind it as it gallops on in search of profit and diversion. Left holding the baby, what's more -that is to say the two Harris children, Ben and Alice: not everyone's cup of tea, these two less than innocent mites, and certainly not mine, but Natalie loved them, as mothers love their children, blindly.It was a Thursday morning. It seemed much like any other. Natalie got up at 7.10. The radio alarm switched itself on: music and chat came through loud and clear. The Harris' nice new bungalow, complete with dream