The Stolen Hours by Karen Swan

Author:Karen Swan [Swan, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2023-04-05T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

The sheep drama, as it came to be called, shook the whole village. The last sixteen sheep were lost in the end, forfeited in the wake of her accident, which was considered an omen to get back. Donald had carried her all the way down, his voice rumbling against her ear and telling her to hold on, that she mustn’t sleep, couldn’t leave him . . . She would have gripped him back if she could, but she’d been so weak; she would never forget the sound of her mother’s cry as he brought her into the cottage.

A bath had been filled for her, the neighbours running and staggering through with their pots of boiled water, and when Lorna had deemed her suitably warmed up she was put into her bed, which had been warmed with three clay bottles. There she had lain through two nosebleeds and a headache that wouldn’t let up for three days. She had suffered a ‘trauma’, Lorna told her as she came in to check on her, in between nursing those who had also come down with heavy colds; working for hours, waist- and chest-deep in the snow, had been bound to have consequences, and in the days afterwards, her brother Fin, Flora’s father, Effie, Molly Ferguson and even the indomitable Hamish Gillies were all laid low with heavy chests and confined to their beds. Lorna was moving between almost all the crofts, taking temperatures, administering fluids and cod liver oil, while Jayne Ferguson, her mother told her, was taking it upon herself to pray for their souls, tirelessly trekking a path to and from the kirk every morning and every night.

Mhairi felt guilty to be ‘resting’ as she watched her parents work tirelessly, not one but two vital pairs of hands down, with Fin laid low too. The fires needed to be kept burning day and night, keeping the croft – and, more importantly, her – warm. But as well as the guilt she was restless, her spirit in a state of perpetual agitation. It was almost more than she could stand being confined to her bed or, if she was lucky, a fireside chair. She yearned to get outside and see other faces – his face – but they were all trapped, the snow continuing to fall and keeping everyone sequestered inside. Only those chores which could not be avoided, such as milking the cows, justified a quick dash out into the elements. Patience was wearing thin and tempers were at breaking point as they all jostled in the small crofts like kittens in a bag.

But on the fourth day after the drama there dawned a bright, cold November morning, the sort where the sun blistered listlessly in a pale sky, nature held in a frigid silence. Only the sea spoke up, long grey waves falling heavily upon the beach in lolloping lazy sighs before retreating with a sizzle and a hiss. Most of the birds were far out at sea now,

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.