The Corn Maiden by Barbara Cleverly

Author:Barbara Cleverly [Cleverly, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2015-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

9

Their tired horses walking in step, they rode gently side by side down the track by the burn. He seemed to be disposed to ride on in silence, and this was very welcome to Nell, absorbed in her thoughts as she was. She recalled all that had been said of the Clearance and contrasted the empty hillside beyond the Bridge of Achill with the busy, traditional life on the lands of Lindsay. She thought with pity of the waif-like fugitive and felt once more in her imagination his skinny body shivering inside her cloak as she carried him back to the castle and saw once again his grateful eyes looking up at her. She remembered the men running back with her to the bridge and the end of the battle. She hurriedly dismissed from her mind her own rash intervention, and above all she was conscious of the strength, pride, and purpose of Moidart himself. Memories of the night they had shared and a sense of the fear and fascination he inspired in her caused her heart to beat faster, and she kept her gaze determinedly on the path before her, avoiding his eye.

After a while, the path wandered away from the burn and set out across the hillside. Without a word and by common consent, they let the rested horses out and, trotting on at first, cantered together over the hill. Curlews called plaintively from the surrounding bog lands and, as though a warning shot had been fired, a pack of grouse whizzed across their path. The westerly wind was strengthening behind them and, it seemed, blowing them on, and with it came menacing clouds packed densely above the surrounding hills.

Nell’s thoughts scampered back to Park Lane and the refinements of Hyde Park and to Suffolk and its lavish corn crops, its peaceful fields, the cattle, and the lush water meadows. In her mind she contrasted the easy, smiling people of her home, in their security, with these Highlanders—poised in danger between an old and familiar and a new and threatening way of life. Several times she tried to put her thoughts into words, but the taciturnity of her companion stopped her, until at last he reined his horse and turned to look at her with a regard so strange she was taken aback. For a moment, he seemed to calculate, and then he said, “Rain is coming up from the west. We might be wise to turn aside for shelter till it’s blown over. Just over the hill is a bothy…”

For a moment, his face was illuminated by a smile so friendly and affectionate that Nell was amazed. He continued, “We can shelter ourselves there, and we can shelter our horses. I have not, I’m afraid, been a thoughtful cavalier this morning, dragging you into our primitive squabbles and putting you into danger, but at least I have a venison pastie in my bag, and I have a dram of the coarse peasant spirit that we northern primitives depend on in such situations.

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