Reckoning: A deeply moving and emotional World War 2 historical novel (Sisters of Wartime England Book 6) by Madalyn Morgan

Author:Madalyn Morgan [Morgan, Madalyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781805082316
Publisher: Storm Publishing
Published: 2023-08-07T22:00:00+00:00

Fingers of ice seized Claire’s heart as the memory of the prison came into her mind. Like the pull of a magnet, the feeling that she must return there was luring her. She craned her neck and looked out of the window to get a glimpse of the prison, which lay beyond the trees to the right. Thomas turned the car in the opposite direction. He steered it off the road, down a narrow lane that ended on the south side of the wood and turned off the engine. ‘We have to go on foot from here.’ He pointed to a clump of small spruces. ‘We’ll enter by those saplings and walk straight ahead until we find the path. Then we’ll follow it down to the clearing.’

‘Listen?’ Claire said, getting out of the car. ‘Can you hear that?’

‘No,’ Thomas whispered, ‘what is it?’

‘Nothing. There is no sound at all. Yesterday at the prison, the noise the storm made was so loud we couldn’t hear ourselves speak. But now?’ Claire fell silent and strained her ears. ‘Not even birdsong. This place is as quiet as the grave. There is not even the sound of the breeze in the trees.’

In the eerie stillness, Claire followed Thomas into the wood. The saplings on the edge allowed daylight to filter through for a few yards, but further in, the fully-grown firs were so tall that, with the winter sun low in the sky, only the tops of the tallest trees would see daylight.

Claire stumbled. Thomas stopped and turned round. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes. My eyes haven’t fully adjusted to the darkness but go on, I’ll be fine.’

‘Take this.’ Thomas took a torch from his rucksack, switched it on and gave it to Claire. They had only taken a further half a dozen steps when Thomas stopped and took the torch back. ‘I think this is it,’ he said, shining the beam of light across a patch of barren earth in a small clearing. ‘Come,’ he said, taking Claire’s hand. ‘Stand here. Can you feel the ground is hard?’

‘Yes.’ Claire scraped the sole of her shoe from side to side, disturbing a thin layer of moss. Excited, she took a couple of steps and stopped. ‘The ground here is slightly raised and is soft under my feet.’ Taking smaller steps, she followed Thomas along a sloping path and within a short distance she saw rays of light flickering through the trees. They were near the edge of the wood.

With fewer trees there was more light. They could see where they were going but with every step the gradient of the path became steeper. Putting out her hands and holding on to the trunk of each tree as she came to it, Claire was able to defy gravity and stay upright. Thomas was not so careful and when the path suddenly dipped his strides turned into short staggering steps. The momentum of the downward slant pulled him forward, he lost his balance, and went hurtling down the mossy path on his backside.

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