The Ground She Walks Upon Read Online Free PDF Page B

there was no definite destination. "
    "How did you find her?" Peter Maguire whispered.
    "I held the cross in my hand and it seemed to work like a compass, its fire increasing when I went in the direction it wanted me to go. When I found the cottage far outside the village in a grove of hawthorn, I'd never seen it so brilliant. It was blinding. "
    "You've found the girl, " Father Nolan said reverently.
    "And who is she?" Niall snapped.
    " 'Twas Grania's cottage. "
    Trevallyan's laughter boomed through the vicarage. "Grania! Old, humpbacked Grania! The crone the townspeople call witch! Why this is rich! I am to marry a woman who is old enough not just to be my mother, but grandmother as well!"
    "It could be her daughter, Brilliana, the cross was seeking, " said Maguire.
    "Who is Brilliana?" Trevallyan asked.
    "Grania has a daughter who she had very late in life. The daughter would be your age, my lord. "
    "That's right!" chimed Drummond.
    "We must go to this cottage and see the bride for ourselves." Father Nolan stood.
    Trevallyan shook his head. "I'll not bother these women in the dead of night. Not for the preposterous reason of a geis. "
    "I once heard the tale of a young man who laughed at a geis placed upon him by an old woman. " Griffen O'Rooney's voice issued through the dark room like a shiver. The other old men in the room seemed to huddle together as if they were afraid of the forces they believed howled around them like the wind coming in from the sea. "James Fitzherbert was a fine young man, strapping, tall, and handsome, who lived in this county hundreds of years before you, Trevallyan. He ignored his geis, and famine came to Lir, famine we have never seen since. The first to starve was his true love. The lass wasted away until she was nothing more than a skeleton with large, haunting eyes that cried out for food. Some say 'twas hunger made Fitzherbert go mad, but others say 'twas the guilt that robbed him of his sanity. "
    Trevallyan said nothing. He stared at O'Rooney, anger tautening his lips.
    "We must go to the cottage, m'lord, " begged Father Nolan.
    "You turn twenty at midnight, " Maguire cajoled.
    "Look at the hour!" cried Drummond.
    All heads turned to the walnut mantel clock. It was five minutes before midnight.
    " 'Tis folly to believe I'll marry this girl. I've never met her. She could be a hag like her mother. More importantly still, I do not love her. I do not know her—"
    "Ah, but Trevallyan, you have not asked about the fourth part of the geis. " Griffen O'Rooney's voice cut through Niall's words like a ghostly howl in the night. All the men turned to look at O'Rooney, each face paler than the next.
    "So tell me, old storyteller. Tell me the rest of the tale, " Trevallyan mocked, though his cheeks were not so ruddy as before.
    Griffen stared at the young man, the pity and the hope still alive in his aged eyes. " 'Tis well you'll hear the story. When we get to the cottage. "

Chapter 4
    T he cottage was nestled in a gnarled, dense hawthorn grove that had been planted in ancient times. The wind screamed, and the rain fell in sheets, making a rocky creek bed of the road. Reverend Drummond's hack fought its way to the cottage light. The carriage stopped before a low, batten doorway where an old crone of a woman stood, as if she had been expecting them.
    Each man filed into the dim cottage. Trevallyan looked upon the interior with disgust. One single oiled sheet of paper covered the small window. The floors were cold earth, and the walls were black with decades of soot from the hearth. Cats were everywhere; fat and sleek, sleeping by the hearth, lurking on shelves, fighting amongst themselves, while rats gnawed and squealed in dark corners, too plentiful even for the pride of cats. There was poverty in Lir, but he had seen none such as this.
    "Woman, " he said softly, staring at the woman's hands burrowed deep into her apron, hands that were as gnarled as the hawthorns, that should have trembled in the