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Back The Darkest Shore Save as PDF
Chapters (76)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Also by Karen Brooks
  4. Title Page
  5. Dedication
  6. EXPLANATORY NOTE
  7. PART ONE
  8. One
  9. Two
  10. Three
  11. Four
  12. Five
  13. Six
  14. Seven
  15. Eight
  16. Nine
  17. Ten
  18. Eleven
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Fifteen
  23. Sixteen
  24. Seventeen
  25. Eighteen
  26. Nineteen
  27. Twenty
  28. Twenty-One
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. PART TWO
  37. Twenty-Nine
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. Thirty-Three
  42. Thirty-Four
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. PART THREE
  45. Thirty-Six
  46. Thirty-Seven
  47. Thirty-Eight
  48. Thirty-Nine
  49. Forty
  50. Forty-One
  51. Forty-Two
  52. Forty-Three
  53. Forty-Four
  54. Forty-Five
  55. Forty-Six
  56. Forty-Seven
  57. Forty-Eight
  58. Forty-Nine
  59. Fifty
  60. Fifty-One
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. PART FOUR
  63. Fifty-Three
  64. Fifty-Four
  65. Fifty-Five
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Fifty-Seven
  68. Fifty-Eight
  69. Fifty-Nine
  70. Sixty
  71. Sixty-One
  72. Epilogue: Autumn 1706
  73. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  74. GLOSSARY
  75. LIST OF CHARACTERS
  76. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

She was both astonished and relieved that the division she’d felt so strongly in the community when she was freed five weeks earlier had not erupted into violence. At least, not yet. Instead, it surged beneath the town like an underground torrent, searching for release.

From the moment Sorcha returned to the harbour, a mere week after leaving the Tolbooth, the fishwives and fishermen rallied to welcome her and Nettie. Some of the shopkeepers made a point of greeting them when they passed on their first day back, as did the wives of the men away on long voyages. Emerging from their houses, waving and, on two occasions, bringing food to share while the fishwives worked, they’d been eager to show support. In their kind looks, forced laughter and sly references to the reverend and the bailies, she knew they were letting her, Nettie and others like Beatrix, who also came to the shore, know whose side they were on.

The week she remained at home, some of her neighbours made a point of calling by, bringing soup, bannocks, and occasionally a dram to share. While there were those who pretended not to want to know what happened in the Tolbooth, the fishwives weren’t so tactful. They were keen to learn every single detail. Mainly because they wanted to add to their growing list of complaints against the reverend. Sorcha was reluctant to share anything, but Nettie felt no such compunction.

When Sorcha warned Nettie against saying too much lest it came back to bite her, her friend explained that telling the fishwives made the entire nightmare more akin to the tales her da had regaled her with as a bairn. In the telling, she owned the story. She took it from the men who inflicted the pain and suffering, the officials who allowed it to happen and kept records, and made it hers.

Unable to bear what had been done to his wife or to cope with her gruesome recountings of it, after a couple of weeks, in an uncharacteristic show of authority, Thom White reasserted his husbandly rights and insisted Nettie not only remain with him, as she had since she left the Tolbooth, but since the tenants had now vacated, that they shift into her house in Anster together. Letting him believe he had complete mastery, Nettie confessed to Sorcha she was relieved to escape the Weem for a time.

‘I understand why you went to Dagny, hen, even knowing it wouldn’t be a joyful reunion. Sometimes, you just need to put distance betwixt yourself and a place — mainly because of the memories it tosses up like wreckage after a storm.’

What Nettie also admitted was her grave concern for Thom’s health. The cough he’d developed before she went into the Tolbooth had worsened and he’d lost a great deal of weight.