What the Tide Brings, #1 by Heather Ewings

Author:Heather Ewings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: selkies, Selkie stories, Magical realism, Myth and folklore, Scottish Folktale Retelling, Scottish Historical Folktale Fantasy, Women's Fiction, Family saga, parenting and relationships, literature, norse and viking myth and legend, nordic myth and legend fantasy ebooks, Australian and Oceanian Literature, Mythology and Folklore, Metaphysical Fantasy, Women's Fantasy Fiction, historical fantasy, historical Australian and Oceanian Literature, family
Publisher: Quamby Press
Published: 2020-04-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

The wash-house door creaked and Myna turned to see Ebba peering in.

‘Have you finished your chores?’

Ebba nodded. ‘I’ve cleaned the house and returned Alfred’s nets. And Father had me deliver some fruit to Colleen.’

Myna nodded. ‘Thank you. There’s nothing more I need right now. You can have some time to yourself.’

Ebba nodded, but stayed in the doorway.

‘What is it?’

‘I want to talk about last night.’

‘There’s nothing to talk about.’ Myna turned back to her task, pulling a shirt out of the tub to scrub it against the washboard. ‘It was a dream.’

‘I mentioned it to Colleen.’

‘What would Colleen know?’

‘She said you had another child. A baby that died. She said the midwife took it. She said you used to down to the shore, and gaze out to sea. She thinks the midwife must’ve given the baby a sea burial.’

Myna froze, her heart pounding, as Ebba continued.

‘She said maybe you were still grieving.’

Myna forced herself to return to her task as Ebba moved closed behind her to put a hand on her shoulder.

‘I...’ What to say? Yes, there’d been a child, and she’d been declared dead but actually was very much alive and lived with the seals?

‘I don’t know what she’s talking about.’ Myna cringed at her thoughtless words.

‘What?’

‘I...I mean...’

‘You know Colleen isn’t the only one who’s talked of such things. I’ve heard the stories.’

‘What stories?’

‘A child whose sudden appearance scared away all the fish, and then when a woman grown the sudden loss of her own child saw them return.’

‘Where did you hear this?’

‘It’s a bedtime story a friend was told as a child. It was presented all rather mysteriously, I might add. I’d never have suspected it was connected to us, except her mother was horrified it was being told in front of me, and later, my friend explained why.’

‘Oh, Eb.’ Myna moved to put an arm around her daughter, but Ebba pushed her away.

‘Don’t comfort me about their lies while hiding your own. Don’t make me believe I’m going mad. I was awake when I followed you to the beach. I know what I saw.’

Myna stared at her daughter, mute.

‘You’re not going to say anything, are you? You’d rather try and convince me I was sleep-walking or something, as if I often leave my bed in the dead of the night.’

Ebba slammed the door as she stormed off, and Myna’s face flushed.

How had this happened? How was it possible she’d put one daughter offside just as she’d reconnected with the other? And how could she tell the truth without losing Ebba completely?

She leaned against the wall and slid down it till she was sitting on the floor. Myna wasn’t exactly sure at what point they’d decided to keep this secret from Ebba, or why they’d thought it was a good idea at the time, but something in her felt compelled to keep it that way.

How is hiding a child’s heritage beneficial to her?

Myna sank her face in her hands. She’d not known the truth of her own past for so long, and she’d almost lost her oldest child completely because of it.

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