The Stolen Child by Lisa Carey

Author:Lisa Carey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-02-07T05:00:00+00:00

Three days later Emer volunteers Niall to help his uncle and father mend a currach, and asks Brigid if she wants to go on a walk. She’s pulling at the collar of her blouse, a nervous gesture Brigid has noticed—Emer hates to have fabric touching the hollow of her throat. Brigid excuses herself quickly and goes into her bedroom to fetch the pouch she keeps under the mattress, just in case.

They walk up the green road, a road that was formed by the tedious work of nuns, with a wall of piled slate on one side, ditches to divert flood, and a dense, level carpet of mossy grass. The road is littered with pellets of sheep dung, some glistening black, most faded to the color of hard dust. They walk all the way around to the cliffs, which are quiet today, the normal scream of wind tamed by the heat to a breeze.

Emer gets far too close to the edge. Brigid reaches for her arm, thinking Emer’s faulty peripheral vision is to blame. But Emer boldly links her fingers into Brigid’s and pulls her along.

A hidden path, no wider than a sheep’s hooves, steps down into the abyss of the cliff. For an instant it seems they will step off into the gliding sea birds, but then Brigid sees it, how it winds around and down into a hidden cave, a small room carved into the side of the sheer cliff. After a balancing act that leaves her dizzy and wobbling over the drop, they are inside a sanctuary almost half the size of her living room. Carpeted in moss, a natural hearth in the stone-layered earth, at its center a stream of water pours into a deep well. It is damp in here, cooler than the weather has been in weeks; the sun hasn’t passed its peak and fallen west, so the room has been in shadow since yesterday. The sound of fresh water seems louder than the salt waves crashing below. Emer settles herself onto mossy ground and reaches for the tin mug left in a natural shelf in the wall of the cliff. She dips it into darkness and lifts it again, taking a long drink and turning to offer it to Brigid. Lust, which seems to grow stronger every time they are together, rises off Emer like steam. She isn’t bothering to hide it now, she lets her hand linger a bit too long when handing over the mug. Brigid sees that Emer brought her here because she hopes that this will be the place they can finally grab hold of one another, far from anyone who might stop them. She takes the cup offered to her and tips it to her lips. The water is delicious, so cold it hurts her teeth. She empties the cup. It is the kind of water that makes you realize just how thirsty you have always been.

She kneels down, waiting for a sign, waiting for the warmth in her middle that tells her it has worked.

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