Return To Rhanna by Christine Marion Fraser

Author:Christine Marion Fraser [Fraser, Christine Marion]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2013-02-27T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The feeling was still with her next morning, and after breakfast she packed a picnic lunch and went round to the shed where Biddy’s ancient bicycle was housed. Niall had stripped, cleaned and oiled it and it squeaked only slightly as she made her way up Glen Fallan towards the moors. The morning had started cool with a mist shrouding the hilltops but now it was rolling away to reveal patches of cornflower blue sky. The grass verges were bright with clover and yarrow, huge clumps of dandelions the colour of ripe butter starred the banks interspersed with buttercups and purple thistles; the scent of wild thyme was heavy in the air merging with the delicate scent of pale blue harebells. The fields of Croynachan hadn’t yet been cut and the hay was a ripe yellow. Highland cattle browsed contentedly among the sweet clover-strewn grass; on the high ground a field of barley, silvered by the wind, swung its pearly fronds to and fro. The numerous reedy lochans that studded the moors were like deep blue sparkling sapphires set amongst the fresh spikes of heather growing on mossy knolls. The lochans were the nurseries for grey lag geese and Shona stopped for a while to watch the parent birds fussing around their fully fledged goslings.

Shona laughed at the antics of the chicks, peeping at her inquisitively from the cover of the reeds, one or two of the more daring paddling out for a quick swim before darting once more for cover.

Larks were trilling high overhead while peewits tumbled and frolicked across the endless acres, wild with the delight of the great empty spaces that were theirs to command. Pheasants strutted unhurriedly across the track, the bronze and purple of their plumage flashing jewel-like against the more sombre moor grasses. Shona breathed deeply, glad that she had come to a place where a sense of freedom, like no other on earth, breathed from panoramas of sea, sky, machair and moor.

The peat hags were only just starting to be opened at this end of the island and several groups of people were busy, their spades raised in greeting as Shona cycled by, the wind lifting her hair, spurring the roses to her cheeks.

She had no conscious idea of where she was going but it was enough for her to be out in the gloriously perfumed air, to feel the blood surging through her veins, awakening her senses to all the delights of burgeoning summer. When she finally arrived at the abbey ruins near Dunuaigh she propped her bike against a crumbling wall and flopped down on a heathery knoll to just sit and let the unearthly peace of the forsaken hollow soak into her. To some it was an eerie place, desolate, forgotten, but from childhood she had loved it, finding its stillness a balm to any mood she happened to be in. The old abbey itself was a place of wonder and mystery, there was an odd, poignant beauty in

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.