Six Days With the Dead (33 page)

Anne stirred momentarily in her sleep. Rolling over,
her arm fell from the bed, her small delicate fingers just brushing the stone floor. It was then that Liz noticed the strange purple crystal hanging from Anne’s wrist. Attached to a thin gold coloured chain, the shard of sparkling stone glinted, catching the first few rays of morning light filtering through the small high window. Liz wondered where Anne had got the unusual bracelet, she certainly hadn’t seen anyone else at the convent wearing it and from the look of it, it was too clean and new looking to have been retrieved from one of the Dead. Trying not to wake Anne, Liz leant forward to take a closer look. Turning the cool stone over with her fingers, she could see that on the back some small letters had been inscribed.

‘
Carnglaze?’ she said quietly to herself but was none the wiser as to what it meant or where Anne had got it.

‘
Hi… morning Lizzy,’ Anne said sleepily, the stone slipping from Liz’s fingers as Anne lifted her hand to rub her eyes, ‘Why are you leaning so far out of bed? You’ll fall,’ she continued to say through a stifled yawn.

‘
Morning,’ Liz said, leaning back onto her own bed. ‘I was looking at your bracelet. Where did you get it from?’

Anne
, ignoring her sister’s question, snuggled down into her blankets, deciding the room was too chilly to get out of bed just yet.

‘
Anne, where did you get it?’ Liz repeated, pulling the cover away from Anne’s head.

‘
What! It’s just a bracelet. Let me sleep a bit longer Lizzy, the goats can wait a few more minutes, I’m tired,’ Anne said, trying to pull the blanket back over herself.

‘
Anne…’ the tone in Liz’s voice made it clear she wanted an answer now.

‘
Oh, alright!’ Anne said, knowing Liz wouldn’t let it go. ‘The lady with the baby gave it to me when she was coming out of Sister Josephine’s office last night.’

‘
Ruth? The Reverend’s wife gave it to you? But why?’ Liz said, reaching forward to look again at the sparkling purple stone.

‘
Don’t know,’ Anne replied, shrugging her shoulders. ‘She was nice though. It’s a pity she has to leave.’

‘
Hmm,’ Liz said, thinking about Ruth and her newborn soon to be travelling through the countryside again, with nothing but her husband’s blind faith to protect them. She wished them luck, they would need it.

‘
Anyway, come on, it’s time to get up,’ Liz said, nudging Anne’s bottom with her foot. ‘Don’t forget there’s Stinky and Ratbag to look after now too, Sister Claire will be waiting in the stable to show you and Justin how to take care of them.’

Anne mumbled something from under her blankets but after repeated nudges from Liz
’s foot she finally sat up.

‘
Alright, alright... I’m up’, she said begrudgingly. 

As she began to run the fingers of one hand through her knotted curls, she rubbed the last of the sleep from her eyes with the other. In that moment Liz realised that even though Anne had been forced to grow up fast, taking on the work responsibilities an
d dealing with the harsh realities of surviving just like every-one else at Lanherne, she was still just a seven year old child. Liz could remember when she was Anne’s age and doubted she would have been able to do the things she asked her sister to do on a daily basis. But the world Liz had grown up in was gone and could never be fully retrieved again. Putting aside her gloomy thoughts, Liz realised there was no point in mourning the loss of Anne’s childhood, when Anne herself could not know what she had missed. This way of life was normal to Anne and a world where children played all day, or studied in school, would be as alien to Anne as this new world was to Liz. As long as Anne grew up to be a good person who valued the lives of those around her, Liz knew she would have made good on her mother’s last spoken request and had taken care of Anne.

Once Liz and Anne had dressed, they made their way through the dim cool corridors down to the kitchen. As always, Sister Rebecca and Sister Catherine were there prep
aring breakfast for everyone. Liz wondered how the women, in fact how all of the sisters, managed to always to be the first up and about in the convent, especially when they were always the last to go to bed too.

‘
Morning girls,’ Sister Rebecca said, looking over her shoulder from the eggs she was cooking as they walked in, ‘did you sleep well?’

‘
Yes thanks,’ Liz replied, taking two bowls down from the shelf. ‘Someone slept so well they didn’t want to get up to do their chores at all.’

Anne yawned as she sa
t at the kitchen table, ignoring Liz’s comment. Sister Catherine ruffled Anne’s hair playfully, as she placed a plate of bread on the table.

‘
Well, you better wake up sleepy head, Sister Claire is giving you and Justin a master-class in pig rearing this morning,’ Sister Catherine said, winking at Liz. ‘I think she’s going to make it a competition as to who can look after their pig the best. Justin is already down at the stable with her getting tips.’

Not wanting to be bested by Justin, Anne grabbed some slices of the bread so she could eat her breakfast on the go.

‘And behave.’ Liz called after Anne, as her sister disappeared quickly through the kitchen door.

‘
Thought that would wake her up,’ Sister Catherine said, smiling. ‘I was the same when I was her age, always in competition with my brothers and would do whatever I could to prove I was better than them to my father.’

‘
Did you come from a large family?’ Liz asked, picking at slice of bread.

Ev
en though she had lived in the convent for over a year, she hadn’t pried into the past lives of the Sisters. In general it was an unspoken rule that you didn’t question people about what their lives were like before the Dead came, unless they broached the subject themselves. You just didn’t know what can of worms you were opening by merely asking if someone had been married or, if they had had a family. People didn’t like to be put in a position where they were forced to recall loved ones that may literally have been ripped away from them by the Dead.

‘
Yes, I had four brothers,’ Sister Catherine said, a far away look on her face .‘I lost touch with them when I took my Holy orders in my twenties. I guess they’re all gone now though.’

‘
We can’t pretend to understand it, Catherine, but God certainly called you to service. He planned for you to live. He planned for you to be here at Lanherne,’ Sister Rebecca said, looking uncharacteristically serious.

Once Liz had finished her breakfast of bread with goat
’s cheese, she quickly grabbed two of the boiled eggs Sister Rebecca had been peeling to eat on the go.

‘
Oh Liz, do we know what time the Reverend and his wife are leaving us?’ Sister Rebecca said, as Liz was about to disappear out of the door.

‘
Not sure, sometime this morning I think. Why?’ Liz replied, pausing in the doorway.

‘
Well, I’ve put together a bit of food for them,’ Sister Rebecca said, indicating a small box on the floor. ‘Just because they won’t be staying here, I can’t see them go without a meal to eat on the road.’

‘
Charlie and I are popping over to Jackson’s this morning to tell him about what’s been going on, but I’ll put the box by their cart for you, that way they’ll see it before they go,’ Liz said, bending down to pick up the box.

With t
he box under her arm and a boiled egg sticking out of her mouth, Liz waved briefly to the two Sisters as she left the room. Walking down the cold dimly lit corridor, the only light coming from the single window at the end of the hallway, Liz tried to supress a shiver going through her. Knowing the early morning air would still hold the cool crispness of dawn, she wished she had remembered to bring her jacket.

Stepping out into the court yard, Liz could already hear Ann and Justin playfully arguing about th
e pigs. With Sister Claire keeping the two of them under control, she knew they couldn’t get into too much trouble, so she left them to sort it out amongst themselves. Lars had already hitched up the Reverend’s sad looking horse to their cart and was just finishing attaching Samson’s bridal, for their own short trip to the village. As usual Penny wasn’t too far from Lars and being as helpful as ever, was dancing barefoot and humming a tune to herself. Liz wondered if the young woman would ever be able to leave the world she had created for herself in her head and join the rest of them in reality. Dancing past her, Penny stopped to hand her a feather she had found, a distant smile on her face. On some level, Liz envied Penny’s internal world, and after the things she had had to deal with over the last few days, she wouldn’t mind escaping reality once in a while herself.

‘
Thank you, Penny,’ Liz said twirling the feather between her fingers.

As usual Penny didn
’t seem to hear her and just went on with whatever she thought she was doing. Waving ‘good morning’ at Lars, Liz went to place the small box of supplies by the Reverends cart. It was not until she was placing the box on the ground by one of the back wheels, did she notice that Nathan and Ruth were standing quietly together on the other side. Confused, she wondered why they were there both silently staring at something that had caught their attention. Following their line of sight, she was none the wiser. They appeared to be watching Justin and Anne as they played with the two piglets. Unfortunately, their argument seemed to have progressed to another level and they were chasing each other outside the stable. With the heavy rain the previous night turning much of the ground to a muddy mess, Liz could guess where this was going. Sure enough, at that moment Justin slipped and landed face down in the mud. This of course bought forth an uncontrollable riot of laughter from Anne.

‘
Oh, for God’s sake,’ Liz said to herself, getting a dirty look from both the Reverend and Ruth for her blasphemy.

Ignoring their disapproving looks, Liz knew she would have to intervene before Anne got herself into trouble. At that point her sisters laughing abruptly stopped when, thanks to Justin
’s good aim, she too suddenly had a face full of wet mud. Before a full-on mud throwing war could break out, Liz walked over to the two squabbling children.

‘
Hey, come on you two, calm down,’ Liz said, trying not to laugh at the two mud splattered urchins before her, ‘and I thought Sister Claire was meant to be here? She’s not going to be too happy about you mucking about.’

As she suspected both of the children began instantly blaming the other. When they both reali
sed Liz didn’t really care whose fault it was, they soon fell silent.

‘
Sister Claire decided to check out what damage the storm did the fields. She out there now with the some of the others,’ Justin said, wiping the worst of the mud from his face.

‘
I thought we were a little thin on the ground,’ Liz said, looking about the courtyard. She could see Imran and Alice on watch duty, Bryon with Adrian, examining some seedlings that they had planted in a smaller version of the polytunnel and approaching her now, Barry and Charlie.

‘
What have you been up to young man?’ Barry said, trying to put a stern look on his face but failing miserably.

‘
It was her fault, she…’ Justin began but Barry cut him off mid flow.

‘
Well from the state of you both, I’m guessing you’re both to blame.’

Anne gave Justin a
‘told you so’ type smile and instantly Liz knew Anne was probably to blame after all.

‘
Right, go and wash and change,’ Liz said to Anne, ‘and you’re washing those clothes yourself, you hear me. If I find out you asked one of the Sisters to help, there’ll be trouble.’

‘
You too, Mr,’ Barry said to Justin, agreeing with Liz. ‘Come on I’ll help you fill the shower tanks so you can wash properly.’

Waving Justin and Anne ahead of him, Barry began to walk back into the Convent, his two muddy charges still bickering.

‘Don’t forget what I said,’ Charlie called after him.

‘
Sure, I’ll get it before I sort out these two,’ Barry called over his shoulder and with a brief wave the three of them disappeared inside.

‘
What was that about?’ Liz asked Charlie, as they walked over to their cart.

‘
I told him to get one of the handguns for when we’re out, just in case,’ he replied.       

As they walked past, the Reverend and his wife, were making last minutes checks on the cart.

‘We’ll be going shortly,’ Ruth said politely. ‘And thank you again for the directions to the O’Brien home, it sounds perfect.’

‘
Well no hard feelings and we’ll send someone to check on you in month or so, make sure you’re ok,’ Charlie said putting his hand out to shake the Reverends hand.

‘
It is not our place to judge you,’ the Reverend replied blatantly ignoring Charlie’s extended hand. ‘The Lord will judge you soon enough. And now if you’ll excuse us we left the baby asleep in the room, so we’ll just get him and be off.’