At first light Pa stowed the spades and lifted the girls into the cart. May took charge of the reins while me and Pa and
Rory walked holding to the sides. When we reached the graveyard me and Pa and Rory took turns to open up the flinty ground while the bairns ranged about for pretties to place inside the grave. Then Pa and Padre placed her in. Padre said the binding words, my three sisters mewling and moaning and dropping in daisy buds onto the muslin shroud. Then my
brother and I filled back the gritty soil and
watched Pa and Padre Filton lay the blessed ironstone slab athwart her lying place to keep her safe. And when it was all done and Pa had paid the burial toll we set out straight for home.
This time Eve and Silence held the reins and all else walked to save the ageing mule. Once home I warmed the stew pot and we ate. After food Pa and Rory worked the land while I, with my sisters'' help, cleaned and sewed and baked. At day''s end Pa watched to see how I locked the doors and shutters against the coming of the night and nodded satisfied when I had it done.
And that night with the keys hard beneath my thin flock pillow, I heard the voices clearly for the first time. They sounded loud and plain outside my shuttered window abegging me to open up and come to them. And one of the voices was my brother Sim''s. Another sounded lighter, like my Ma''s. But mindful of my father''s words I held to the keys and kept the shutters barred. And gradually the voices drifted quiet and sleep took me down.
And ever after it was as if Ma and Sim had never been. Pa never spoke of them and turned aside all questions and he never spoke again to Rory save for yes and no. After a month of this silence Rory left to marry Lucy Makepeace and spend his strength in her father''s flourmill. I watched Pa''s face set harder, carven lines of wrinkles digging valley''s in his leathered skin and I went outside all day to take my brother''s work-share then cooked and baked all eve. My sister May took duty for the house and twins all day.