A Child of the Cloth Read Free

never thought I had a need to know. I decided the best thing for me would be to stay away from the church, but this was easier said than done, as my whole life revolved around the church. Other strong forces played heavily upon my mind. I went back to the church with a resolve that I would make no acknowledgement of the young man.
    â€œAs I walked into the church, which was unusually silent, the tuner was there bending over large drawings of the organ which were spread over the top of the grand piano and talking to Mr. Noon, the organist, addressing him by his Christian name, Archie. This took me by surprise, as I had never heard anybody addressing Mr. Noon as Archie. He was one of those people in life that you never realised had a Christian name. As I walked past the organ tuner, he acknowledged me and said, ‘You will have a peaceful day Miss, my assistant will not be in today, evidently he is not well’.
    â€œThat was the last thing I expected to hear. I politely acknowledged him with a smile and left the church, seeking the solitude of the bench under the under the old yew tree in the church yard. I pushed my way through the overgrown beds of lavender whose strong perfume rose and made my head swim. I slowly gained my composure telling myself, this is pure nonsense and saying out loud, ‘I don’t even know his name’, then behind me, a quiet voice said, ‘It’s Arthur, Arthur Halfpenny’. His voice was soft, with just a hint of the West Country. He asked me if he might sit on the bench and before I could reply he was sitting next to me, smiling. It was strange how I felt instantly at ease with him. Even the smell of his tobacco seemed to please me. He smiled and said, ‘You have the advantage of me, you know my name but I do not know yours’.
    â€œI had to stop myself quickly from saying, ‘Miss Stevenson’, as a young man had never asked me my Christian name before. ‘My name is Amelia,’ I said, ‘I am the Rector’s daughter’. We talked about the first time we met and my singing of ‘Widdecombe Fair’. He said it was the first time that he had heard it sung by someone that wasn’t from the West Country, being extremely careful to be polite about my voice. He said he would love to teach me how to sing it as it is sung in the West Country.
    â€œConversation was so easy with him I did not realise how long we had been sitting talking and how late in the afternoon it was until I heard the sound of the bell for Evensong. We met regularly, if somewhat secretly in the churchyard as my parents would have frowned on my being friendly with a working-class man He quite understood this and chose to ignore it. At first he told me little of his background, apart from the fact that he was born and spent his childhood in a town called Tisbury in the West Country. I asked Arthur whether it was his ambition to become an organ builder. He said he had come upon this job by sheer chance. Having come from Tisbury, without any real idea of what he wanted to do in life, he decided to look for some form of temporary work. Looking through the local newspapers’ positions vacant column, he saw a small advertisement: ‘Wanted. Young man to assist organ tuner, experience not necessary but must have some knowledge of music.’ On telephoning he said he was surprised that the job was offered instantly but on the understanding that he could start work the following day, he said he was a little apprehensive as he had no experience of organs and his only knowledge of music was from playing the clarinet. He said Mr. Frampton was a man of few words but friendly to him.
    â€œHe said he had asked him what happened to his predecessor, he was told it was not a happy association and that he’d had to dismiss him because of gross dishonesty, evidently he had been left alone in a church where they had been working, the church was empty, he was sitting up at