Red Hugh by Lisson Deborah;

Author:Lisson, Deborah; [Deborah Lisson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 932346
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2013-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

Ten

HUGH WATCHED TILL his companions were out of sight, then settled down to await Hugh O’Toole’s return. He had never felt more alone. The mountains were vast and alien. They were not his mountains, and they stretched out bewilderingly in all directions to horizons shrouded in mist and rain. He had no idea where he was. Which way was Castlekevin? Which way was Glenmalure? And would Hugh O’Toole find his way back to this spot, or would an English search party find the place before him?

Wet, hungry and chilled to the very marrow, Hugh huddled in his shelter beneath a clump of pines and pulled his cloak more tightly round his shoulders. The confidence he had pretended earlier shrivelled like a flower after frost. He didn’t know which he feared more – being found by the English or not being found at all.

Above everything he longed to sleep. He didn’t dare to close his eyes, but that didn’t stop him dreaming – weird, hallucinatory nightmares: disembodied heads grinning down at him from the trees, and ghostly figures swirling about him in the rain. When he heard voices, he thought they too were part of the dream. It wasn’t till they surrounded him that he realised they were Irish – and that one of them belonged to Hugh O’ Toole.

They brought him down to Castlekevin on a litter. He remembered little of the journey – only the comfort of rugs, the voices of his rescuers and the utter bliss of knowing he was safe. At the hall they had prepared him a bed near the fire. Hands stripped him of his wet clothes and he sank into the mattress gratefully. Other hands – or maybe they were the same ones – bathed his feet. Voices spoke reassuringly. He was aware of it all – but only dimly, as if it were happening far away, to someone else. Soon even the faint echoes faded.

He woke in darkness, ravenously hungry. The fire was still flickering and he could hear voices nearby, arguing softly. One he recognised – it was Felim’s. The other belonged to a woman. She seemed to be trying to reassure Felim. ‘Will you stop your worrying,’ she said. ‘It is all in Fiach’s hands now.’

‘I know, but …’

‘You are after doing everything you could. No one will blame you, whatever happens.’

‘It’s the weather I’m fearful for,’ said Felim. ‘With the rain that’s in it …’

The sentence was left unfinished. Hugh turned his head to look at the speakers, but they were only shadows in the firelight. The rush mattress rustled as he moved and the woman must have heard it, for she stood up and came over to his bed. She was tall, with strong features and hair that glowed copper-coloured in the firelight. She put him in mind of his mother. He wondered who she was, but somehow it seemed impolite to ask.

She smiled down at him. ‘So, awake at last. And with a hunger on you to eat an ox and I’m not mistaken?’

He nodded.

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