Read Beyond the Cliffs of Kerry for Free Online Page A

him.
     
    Father Etienne, too, was excited, and they walked from the abbey to the cliffs for their lesson. They came upon a cluster of boulders and climbed on top of them, settling themselves on one large, smooth stone. The gray clouds were thick and heavy, but it was not raining.
     
    Father Etienne liked it up here. He was far enough from town to avoid the dangers of discovery, and the scenery was beautiful. He looked at the mountains and the stone fences, the dark green turf and the lavender heather. He noticed how Darcy's multi-colored shawl stood out in stark contrast to the gray sky above her.
     
    Reaching down into the canvas bag, he produced a flat board with figures written on it, which was called a hornbook. Father Etienne told Darcy that this was his book when was a small boy. It pleased him to see her handle it with reverence.
     
    Darcy was thrilled. Even though the shapes on the board were alien to her, they awoke an excitement that she could barely contain. Next, Father Etienne wrote figures on a flat black rock he called a slate, and told Darcy that this was the alphabet. They worked together for hours, writing then erasing, passing the chalkboard back and forth.
     
    Father Etienne looked up at the darkening sky and said, "I think we should end here for today."
     
    Darcy looked up in protest and said, "But I can't read yet, Father!"
     
    "Oh no, Darcy," he chuckled. "It will take many more lessons, but you will read soon. I can see that you have a quick mind."
     
    Gathering their things, they agreed to meet tomorrow, but before leaving Darcy said, "I don't have any money, Father, but I wish to pay you something."
     
    Father Etienne started to protest, but remembering Darcy’s pride said, "It is the custom in England and the Colonies that young women make a needlework sampler of the alphabet. It gives them practice on their letters and their needlework. Sometimes they add a quotation from Scripture as well. The only payment I ask is to have your sampler when it is complete, to adorn my home."
     
    Darcy agreed instantly. As she turned to go, Father Etienne asked, "Do you still think I should mind my own business?"
     
    She raised an eyebrow, and then turned abruptly for home. He watched her walk briskly down the bluff thinking how he had underestimated her intelligence. He knew that she had a hungry mind, but he had no idea how quickly she would grasp academics.
     
    Father Etienne chuckled when he remembered what she had said earlier in the day. "Father, I must tell you the truth about something. Several nights ago I opened your crate of books, and I have been reading them at night. Not really reading them, but I take them out, look at the covers and then make up the story.”
     
    He remembered the look in her eyes when he told her the titles of those books-- Plato's Republic, Dante's Divine Comedy, The Canterbury Tales-- and said to her, "I think you would enjoy some plays by an Englishman named, William Shakespeare. He wrote some wonderful plays which speak to all of us."
     
    For all the benefits Darcy would receive from an education, it occurred to Father Etienne that maybe it was a disservice to her. A woman's choices were few, and she would have no peers. In a land where food is rare, books are unheard of, and he worried that maybe he’d opened up Pandora's Box.
     
    Father Etienne sighed and rubbed his brow. He was tired, and the entire night lay before him. He had many confessions to hear and several sick villagers to comfort, so he turned to look one last time at Darcy as she descended the bluff, but Pandora had vanished from his sight.
     

     
    Chapter 4
     
    The owlers were expecting another shipment from France soon, and in the eight months following the arrival of Father Etienne, many shipments of brandy had been delivered safely to the shores of Kilkerry. The routine was always the same, Darcy would hail the vessel, and the men would exchange wool for brandy then bury their cargo in the