Late Harvest by Fiona Buckley

Author:Fiona Buckley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780727885944
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2016-01-25T08:00:00+00:00

Beyond this surprising tableau, I could see several other men, close to the cliff edge, all staring downwards and apparently discussing something. I turned Lady towards them and realized as we approached that they were standing where a sloping pathway down the cliff began, the path that according to Ralph had been used by free traders until a landslide blocked it.

As I came within earshot, I heard one of the men remark: ‘Still needs a bit of clearing but spades and shovels and a moonlight night, and there’s the track, good as new, ready for a pack train.’

Another voice replied: ‘Needn’t even use a pack train. How about a good strong plough horse and a kind of trailer?’

Then the man holding the cow’s halter saw me and called: ‘We have company!’ and they all became aware of me. They fell silent, heads turning.

I recognized some of the faces. Luke Hatherton, lean and bleached as ever. The fisherman I had met when I stayed with the Duggans, big, slow-moving Barney Oates with the grizzled beard. Roger Hatherton was there and the fellow holding the cow by the rope halter was surely Daniel Hopton. I hadn’t seen him for years but the big ears and the dust-coloured tuft of hair sticking up above his forehead were unmistakeable.

And then I saw Ralph.

He knew me at the same moment and came striding towards me. ‘Peggy! What in the world brought you here?’

‘Whatever it was, it shouldn’t have done!’ Luke Hatherton came hurrying after him, his face as hard as rock. ‘What’re we goin’ to do about this, now? She heard! I’d take my oath on it! We weren’t whispering. Who’d have thought it, a woman turnin’ up out of the blue just as we’re …’

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