Blood Feud by Margit Sandemo

Author:Margit Sandemo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jentas A/S
Published: 2019-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

The following morning she woke up, shaking from the cold. Her cough echoed through the barn.

The men came in once more.

‘No more now,’ she prayed to herself. ‘I can’t take anymore!’

But the men took no notice of her. They shoved her into a corner and then they began to work. Long, narrow wooden poles were carried inside. More and more of them. So freshly cut that the good, strong smell of fresh wood spread in the barn.

There were many men, more than she had seen until now. She counted five in all, the usual three and two new ones. But the two new men didn’t look any nicer than the others.

Villemo sat crouched in her corner, her arms wrapped around her body to protect herself from the cold, watching them as they worked.

The poles were put up from floor to ceiling and were thrust far into the earthen ground. She quickly realised what was about to happen. They were dividing the space in two along the length of the barn. The poles were spread wide enough so that you could see between them and maybe even be able to put a hand through. But they were placed in double rows with a long aisle between about two feet wide.

The whole day they worked on this double wall. Villemo said nothing and the men seldom looked at her. She was dejected and unhappy and had given up completely. She had no more energy.

Eventually, the men left and the door was closed. The door to the barn was now situated right in front of the central aisle and two new, heavy doors with padlocks led into the two sections.

It was the hour of twilight. The peepholes were always covered with a grate, and the shutters were now put up in front of them. It was dark in the barn but with her well-trained eyes, she could still discern most of the room.

Villemo rolled up in the straw, trying to drop off to sleep. Then the door was opened with a bang. Curses mingled with the groans of the hard-working men. She heard them rummage in the other section of the barn and sat up.

Then she could hear the Woller landowner shouting, “You’ve got some company, girl. There you are!”

They left and closed the door. Villemo jumped up and walked over to the new partition. Her eyes knew every corner in the barn. She saw something shine unusually bright behind the other part of the double wall. Somebody was hanging from his arms over there. She wasn’t able to see much, but she could discern that a rope must have been tied around his hands. And he was almost naked; all he was wearing were his trousers. There was silence in the barn. She could hear raspy and uneven breathing.

“Oh God, what have those devils done now?” she moaned. “Ejnar Skaktavl, is it you?”

To begin with, all she could hear was the rasping, tormented breathing.

Then she heard a voice, distorted with pain, say, “Villemo!”

She stood transfixed with her hands clenched around the wooden poles.

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