Simply Dead by Eleanor Kuhns

Author:Eleanor Kuhns [Eleanor Kuhns]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2019-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-TWO

‘Wolves were real bad last year,’ Granny Rose said as she hurried through the snow. Her men’s boots were too large for her feet and each step pressed into the snow with a peculiar thudding sound. ‘We all lost livestock and even a couple of old men out hunting. So far this year they’ve taken a couple of children, sent out to gather firewood. And it’s early yet. No one travels without a musket.’

‘My powder is wet,’ Rees said, realizing as soon as he’d spoken that he sounded as though offering excuses.

Granny Rose said nothing as she threw a quick glance over her shoulder but she increased her speed. Rees couldn’t help himself. He had to look. He saw the shadows slinking furtively in his wake. Re-energized by fear, he broke into a ragged trot.

‘Almost there,’ Granny Rose panted after a few minutes of rapid running. Rees nodded. He could see the orange light coming from the fire burning in Granny’s yard.

She stopped abruptly and, turning quickly, she loaded her old musket and fired off another shot. A sharp cry told them she had hit one of the pack. By accident, Rees guessed, since she hadn’t aimed and muskets were unreliable anyway.

‘Dang,’ Granny Rose said, sounding regretful. ‘I didn’t mean to do that. Just meant to scare ’em off.’ She reached out and tugged at Rees’s arm. ‘Let’s go.’

She had fixed a lantern to one of the posts of her rail fence. She untied the rope holding it and motioned Rees through the gate. He did not think he had ever been so happy to see a house, small and shabby though it was, in his life.

Once inside, Granny put the lantern on the table. She stirred up the fire and as the flames took hold and the heat seeped into the room Rees finally began to feel warm. Not warm enough to remove his greatcoat however. He dropped into a chair, finally realizing how very tired he was. Now that he was safe he began to feel every one of his hurts. His ankle ached, oh, with such a grinding pain he groaned. And as sensation returned to his fingers, they tingled and then stung as though a hive of bees were at them.

‘What’s the matter?’ Granny Rose asked as she slopped stew into a bowl and put it before him. It smelled far better than the slimy pottage offered him by the Wootten boys and Rees reached for the wooden spoon. His fingers couldn’t pick it up. Granny Rose took his hand and looked at the fingers. ‘You were lucky I found you when I did,’ she said. ‘You’re starting a case of frostbite.’

Rees stared at her in horror. ‘I can’t lose my hands,’ he said, his voice rising. ‘I’m a weaver.’ The midwife offered him a thin smile as she put her warm hands around his white fingers and held on for a moment.

‘You won’t lose your fingers but they’ll be sore for a little while.’ She gestured at his foot.

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