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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

Upon sighting Sorcha, the women let out a scream that made the dog on the harbour wall leap to his feet and release a volley of barks. The children playing with a hoop darted for the protection of their mothers and the men sitting on their stoops smoking pipes jumped up before shaking their heads in jovial disapproval.

‘Sorcha!’ the women shouted.

‘If it ain’t young McIntyre herself!’

‘Come to speir the guts oot o’ us again, chick? Drive us to distraction with questions like ye did as a wee one?’

‘Where’ve you been? There be fish to sort, lass!’

Sorcha’s heart soared. There was Jean Durkie, Lillie Wallace, Therese Larnarch, and again, Nicolas Lawson, all of whom she’d worked alongside since she was a bairn. With them was Beatrix, who so often left her spinning to come and gossip at the seafront. These were the women who had stood by her as they had each other through so many deaths and the grief that followed. The women who, like Nettie and Janet, had pleaded with her not to go when Dagny begged her to.

How she wished she’d listened.

Only now they were here, she was able to forget Dagny’s cruel words, the soldiers of last night, even the reverend, and relish this very morning. With a shining face she turned to Nettie, who gave her a shove.

Uncaring how she appeared, Sorcha lifted her skirts and with wild, happy whoops ran as if she were a bairn and not a fishwife or a widow, tears streaming down her cheeks. Catapulting herself forwards, she was caught and folded into strong arms, before being twirled about and showered with laughter and kisses.

A slight distance away, two men watched the reunion with very different reactions. From the bottom of Cove Wynd, Captain Ross saw how Sorcha was greeted and was unable to prevent the smile that split his face.

In the shadows further away, at the corner of Water Wynd, the reverend witnessed how the women careened around, unconcerned by the spectacle they created, their ungodly shrieks echoing as if they were witches in some devil-spawned coven.

And standing in the centre, whipping them into a frenzy that had no place on the streets of his quiet village, was none other than Sorcha McIntyre.

Six

SIX

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Speirin’ makes ye wyce.

(You’ll never know if you don’t ask.)