How I Found a Body

It was not a good morning in Trewith Green but a foggy one. Not long to go to Christmas and I was really looking forward to it. Then the troubles started.... 

"When I looked out of the window - blearily cos I had forgotten to put on my specs - all I could see was horrible white stuff. No, not snow. Fog. I do hope the ponies are keeping well away from the roads.

I dragged on a dressing gown, feet into slippers and glasses on nose then went to one of the spare bedrooms on the other side of the hallway. This is the better of the two as it looks out onto the back garden and, over the tall hedge, to some moorland and trees. As I suspected, there were some ponies there but they were looking a bit disturbed. Hmm. What's wrong?

Back to the bedroom to throw on an old pair of trousers and sweater. Downstairs it was into old showerproof and shoes, the keys and some approved food for the ponies. I've recently added a large enclosed porch outside the kitchen door for shoes, boots, dripping raincoats and the horse feed.

As I crossed the lawn to the door in the hedge I talked to the ponies. Don't want to scare them by making a sudden appearance. 'Okay, me loves, I'm on me way. Why aren't you keeping safe under the trees? But I'm glad you aren't out on the road. Clever things, aren't you? And I've got some food for you.' The problem with a plastic bucket is that you can't make it clang as a warning. Mind you that would probably scare them.

I unlocked - and unbolted - the six foot gate (sorry can't remember the metrics) and opened it. About four muzzles hit me in the chest. 'Hang on kids, let me get out. You aren't coming into the garden.' I'm not good enough at recognising individual ponies so I can only assume these are some that know me. I pushed them away and managed to get out - a bit of judicious throwing of handfuls of feed helped. Then closed the gate. After they'd eaten what I had put down they looked at me, then at another couple who were by the hedge. I took the hint and wandered along to feed them. Except that they didn't want food. They were guarding something.

Oh no! A body. As I got closer I could see it was a rider - still with helmet in place. Unfortunately I couldn't tell whether it was a man or a woman as it was face down."

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This is an extract from 'Trouble in Trewith Green', available on Amazon Kindle - if you don't have a Kindle, download the APP. There you'll find all my books.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DJBANEO