Promised Land Read Free

five miles away would be organized and she would spend a few days with her five cousins, Teresa, Constance, Kitty, Marianne and Slaney, who like steps of stairs were around her own age, with Kitty only six months older than herself, and their older brother Brian. The influence of ‘the ladies’, as her Uncle Jack referred to his daughters, was bound to rub off on a gauche young girl who spent far too much time on her own. Their brother Brian would be kept deliberately busy on the farm and out of the way of their giggling and whispering and racing around playing silly games that Kitty and Connie invented.
    There was always fun and laughter and plenty of female company up at the Kavanaghs’. She loved visiting them and being considered part of their family but, when the time came, was glad to get back to the peace and comfort of home, entertaining her father with stories of all their goings-on as he sat and smoked his pipe in front of the fire. Often they would both drive over to join Jack and Nance and their clan for Sunday lunch. Her kind aunt would fuss over the two of them and send them home with fresh-baked soda bread, and sweet cake and whatever else was left in her pantry.
    Ella sighed and dragged on her boots tentatively. She’d found a field mouse in the left one once, and her father had checked them for her ever since. It had only been a tiny mouse but the memory of it still made her cringe. Pulling on her warm coat, she walked up the back fields, Monty racing along beside her. Her breath formed clouds of steam it was so frosty out, and she dug her hands in her pockets and was glad of the thick knit hat and scarf that she’d decided to don. The grass was greening up and bunches of wild daffodils spattered the ditches. The ground was heavy underfoot, rain-soaked and muddy as she turned her back on the lake and clambered over a turnstile and up towards the hill fields. She could see the white fleece of their ewes and lambs in the distance. It was only as she came closer to the flock that she could see the cluster of worried-looking ewes, huddled together, the lambs bleating plaintively.
    Monty made a run at a mass of black crows pitched on the grass, scattering them with his barking. Dread coiled in her stomach as she spotted the bloody carcasses of two young lambs, their entrails stretched along the ground.
    ‘Jesus!’ she said aloud, closing her eyes as nausea washed over her. There were three more, she discovered as she surveyed the field, and two of the ewes were injured where they had obviously tried to fight off their attackers. Monty sat at her feet, unsure of what to do. Who could have done this? What should she do? What would her father do? She knelt down to examine a ewe. She had a deep gash on her leg, but the blood had caked and although she was limping slightly, it looked like it should heal up. The dried blood soaked into her fleece was probably that of one of her lambs. Ella patted her, trying to comfort her. The poor thing was still dazed with shock.
    ‘Ella! Ella!’
    She turned round to discover Sean Flanagan climbing over the ditch. His father’s farm bordered on theirs and the families often shared the cost of wire fencing and digging ditches and putting in drains.
    ‘So they got you too! How many lambs did you lose?’
    ‘Five,’ she replied angrily.
    ‘We lost nine.’
    ‘Who did it, Sean?’
    ‘Bloody dogs! O’Sullivan’s dog is half crazy, it would nearly take the arm off you if you step into their farmyard, and they always leave it out at night. You see it roaming around the place, and the tinkers have a few half-starved bitches that probably joined in. Jim and the da are gone down to the sergeant to complain.’
    Silently Ella thanked the Lord that Monty slept stretched out in front of the fire every night, guarding the house, for the dogs involved would have to be put down.
    ‘How’s the da?’
    ‘Much the same, Sean.’ She stood up, brushing the dirt off her knees.
    ‘Do