Pádraigs Goods

The Witch's Daughter: Chapter 6. On the Main Road through town Hilde's plan to travel to the Priory meets a hitch, and she makes a discovery.

This was all of a day, near to evening and Hilde’d not eaten. Above her through the leaves of the oak, bats ventured out into the wet. There was a faint glow in the black clouds near the horizon, perhaps the moon.

It was late in the day, but after waking at dawn this morning to do her chores only to have her home threatened and her entire world upended, it was still hard to grasp that all this had been in just one long day. The events of the morning belonged to another lifetime.

Up here at the main road through Duncormac, Hilde’s idea to simply walk to the Priory was beginning to feel like a ill-considered journey fraught with peril. It was still pouring with rain, but several townsfolk were on the road. It could be busy, even quite late. As well as locals, folks from other parts came through, walking in through the South Gate having travelled from Carrick, and headed over the bridge, up to the Wexford Road and north-east.

Gáethán had not recognised her at first, so she might pass for a traveller. But not if a local looked her in the eye. How had she thought idly so lightly of this scheme. Stopping here at the oak was bad — as the light faded her courage did too, and every deepening shadow harboured imagined threats.

Also the Priory lay on the west side, a goodly way from the main road. She had to cross the bridge, and cross from east to west. It was bad luck to be on foot at night. Before today every time of the many happy times she’d gone there it had been with other village children, laughing and telling stories. One or more parents corralled them, or drove them in a cart. It’d seemed no ills of this world could touch them.

But just today everything had changed. After hiding in the pear tree, with that man in black so close she could’ve almost touched him, just walking on this familiar road was crazy. To be sure, it risked a terrible fate.

A pair slogged through the mud toward her, in the distance, just visible now in the gloaming light, in the mists as they crested the arch of the bridge over The Muck. None looked up at her, as she huddled under the big oak that marked where the Back Road ran down from the Main Road to the farms on the East side of the town. It was too late now to climb the tree, as that would only draw more attention.

Voices in the distance almost drowned out by the rainfall, sounded to be drawing some business to a close at Pádraig’s Goods. Surely they’d walk up to the road and not glance here.

Hilde’s stomach rumbled. She put a hand to her griping belly. Of course no-one could hear that. But she pulled her jacket about herself, and her hat down over her face. At least in this weather others had their hats down too, and no-one looked beyond the toes of their sodden boots.