The Last Quarrel (The Complete Edition) by Duncan Lay

Author:Duncan Lay [Lay, Duncan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 9781760300180
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Published: 2015-04-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

Bridgit could hear a child crying. She wanted to stay asleep but years of springing out of bed when she heard Kerrin call had conditioned her too well. Her eyes snapped open and she tried to roll out of bed – only to find she was lying on the cold, wooden floor. How had she got down here?

She sat up, blinking sleep out of her eyes, to see she was not in her own home but in a strange room with a wooden ceiling, wooden floor and wooden walls, one of which was curved strangely. An iron-barred window high above let in a little light, but barely enough to see. For a long moment she stared around, bewildered, then everything came back to her in a rush and she felt as though she would be sick.

But the child was still crying and she could not stand that. She could hear it was not Kerrin. She was not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She wanted to know where Kerrin was but she also wanted to think he was safe, sitting at home with Fallon.

“Who is it? Are you all right?” she called, shaking her head to clear it. Everything felt fuzzy, as though she had woken from a long, deep sleep. She rubbed her face, trying to scrub herself awake, and became aware it was not just one child crying but several.

She peered around and the vague shapes on the ground resolved themselves into figures. She recognized several of them, friends of many years, who were lying as if stunned. But there were also more than a dozen children, all of them between one and seven years of age. Some were wandering around, some were lying next to the sleeping women, while most were sitting and crying. The ones making the most noise were the four youngest children, the babies born this summer. They lay on the floor beside their mothers, who were also asleep.

She looked around desperately but could not see Kerrin. She was torn between relief, hope he had escaped their captors and fear that he was somewhere worse.

Bridgit reached out and grabbed the arm of the nearest, a little girl perhaps five years old, who was wandering around, tears streaming down her face. She looked vaguely familiar but Bridgit could not place her face or name. “Wait, little one,” she said gently, going down on one knee so she was at the child’s level. “Where’s your mother?”

“Don’t know!” the girl wailed.

“Sssh!” Bridgit gathered her into her arms and hugged her close. “Come here, all of you! Come here and we’ll have a song!”

They hurried over, hearing a reassuring voice, and she sat them down in a circle, which was soon joined by all the other children as well. She picked up one of the babies and had the oldest of the children collect the others. All were used to helping younger brothers and sisters and soon sat rocking the babies and soothing them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.