Read The Ground She Walks Upon for Free Online Page B

his library where he could ponder the reasons and toast the poor maid who lay so still beside him. And curse the men who had brought him out this night.
    "She was beautiful, was she not? And the lads thought she was beautiful too. So beautiful... " The crone began to weep in earnest.
    Abruptly Trevallyan turned around. He stared in anger at the four old men who gathered at the grimy curtain, the shock still on their faces.
    "Let us leave this woman with her grief. We should not have come. " The old woman's tears were like pins in his heart, more powerful than the rain that shook the hovel.
    "But—but what of the geis?"
    "This foolishness is over. The geis is no more. " The thought should have comforted him. Tomorrow, when he was gone from this wretched place, he was adamant that it would.
    "But the cross! It still burns with an unearthly light!" Reverend Drummond held out the Celtic amulet. Lightning seemed to shoot from the large fist-sized jewel. The entire piece glowed, though the cottage's interior was quite dark.
    Father Nolan gasped and stepped back from the cross. Griffen O'Rooney shielded his eyes. Maguire genuflected.
    Trevallyan watched the men cower before the amulet. In disgust, he grabbed the cross and shook it at them. " 'Tis nothing but the firelight reflecting in the stone! This cross did not bring you here, you brought you here! You want so hard to believe in this geis that you see signs that aren't there!" He nearly threw the cross on the ground in his contempt for them all. "This Celtic amulet is nothing more than metal and rock, and because of the asinine ideas of men long dead and gone, we've come here on a fool's errand and disturbed this woman's mourning for her daughter!"
    "Is this so? Was the geis nothing but cruel shenanigans played on us by our fathers?" Father Nolan cried out, fear and confusion in his voice.
    "Yes!" Trevallyan raged, soul-weary of the quest that had merely led them to the grave of a woman whose lost, beautiful face he wanted desperately to forget, but seemed burned forever into his memory.
    "No, " said an old woman's voice.
    They all turned to look at Grania. Her eyes were rimmed with red, but she had ceased her crying. Overhead, thunder ripped the heavens and released more buckets of rain. Water dripped from the thatch, forming mud puddles on the floor.
    "Your bride is here, Trevallyan. She is here. "
    Trevallyan looked into the crone's muddy eyes. Slowly he said, "Your daughter is dead. And you, Grania, are not a consideration, for even if our age difference was not an obstacle, you are too old a woman to give me an heir. So who else is there in this bloody cottage?"
    The thunder broke anew, and a blast of wind ripped open the hovel's door. The mayor shoved it closed and sealed it with the crossbar. Still, the wind seemed to scream around the cottage, until the thunder and wind turned into a baby's wail.
    Grania hobbled over to the pile of rags next to the cold, silent Brilliana. From the midst of the tattered, soiled cloths, she lifted a newborn babe; a small, pink-skinned, raven-haired girl. Grania looked down at the babe with love and sadness. "My good Lord Trevallyan, I've no milk for the babe, and she will die if ye cannot find it within ye heart to help me. "
    Trevallyan glanced between the dark-haired babe and Brilliana. "Is this her child?"
    "I told ye. The men thought my daughter beautiful, Lord Trevallyan. I know not the father. Her death was slow and terrible, but at least she left me this. " Grania held the wailing newborn out to him.
    Trevallyan did not take her.
    Quietly he said, "If you need milk for the child, I'll see to it a wet-nurse is brought here tonight. The Trevallyans have never allowed a child to starve in Lir. " He looked around accusingly at the faces of Maguire, Griffen, the father, and Drummond. "I think I understand now. This was a hoax to get me here, wasn't it? But you could have told me the truth -—that a child is in need—and I would have