登陆注册
15468300000020

第20章 ONE 1915-1917 MEGGIE 1(20)

Ever since the day Agnes had lost her hair there had been Frank, and in spite of her sore troubles nothing since had speared her quite to the core. Not canes or Sister Agatha or lice, because Frank was there to comfort and console.

But she got up and managed a smile. "If you have to go, Frank, then it's all right."

"Meggie, you ought to be in bed, at least you'd better be back there before Mum checks. Scoot, quickly!"

The reminder drove all else from her head; she thrust her face down and fished for the trailing back of her gown, pulled it through between her legs and held it like a tail in reverse in front of her as she ran, bare feet spurning the splinters and sharp chips.

In the morning Frank was gone. When Fee came to pull Meggie from her bed she was grim and terse; Meggie hopped out like a scalded cat and dressed herself without even asking for help with all the little buttons. In the kitchen the boys were sitting glumly around the table, and Paddy's chair was empty. So was Frank's. Meggie slid into her place and sat there, teeth chattering in fear. After breakfast Fee shooed them outside dourly, and behind the barn Bob broke the news to Meggie.

"Frank's run away," he breathed.

"Maybe he's just gone into Wahine," Meggie suggested. "No, silly! He's gone to join the army. Oh, I wish I was big enough to go with him! The lucky coot!"

"Well, I wish he was still at home."

Bob shrugged. "You're only a girl, and that's what I'd expect a girl to say."

The normally incendiary remark was permitted to pass unchallenged; Meggie took herself inside to her mother to see what she could do. "Where's Daddy?" she asked Fee after her mother had set her to ironing handkerchiefs.

"Gone in to Wahine."

"Will he bring Frank back with him?"

Fee snorted. "Trying to keep a secret in this family is impossible. No, he won't catch Frank in Wahine, he knows that. He's gone to send a telegram to the police and the army in Wanganui. They'll bring him back."

"Oh, Mum, I hope they find him] I don't want Frank to go away!" Fee slapped the contents of the butter churn onto . the table and attacked the watery yellow mound with two wooden pats. "None of us want Frank to go away. That's why Daddy's going to see he's brought back." Her mouth quivered for a moment; she whacked the butter harder. "Poor Frank! Poor, poor Frank!" she sighed, not to Meggie but to herself. "I don't know why the children must pay for our sins. My poor Frank, so out of things . . ." Then she noticed that Meggie had stopped ironing, and shut her lips, and said no more. Three days later the police brought Frank back. He had put up a terrific struggle, the Wanganui sergeant on escort duty told Paddy. "What a fighter you've got! When he saw the army lads were a wakeup he was off like a shot, down the steps and into the street with two soldiers after him. If he hadn't had the bad luck to run into a constable on patrol, I reckon he'd a got away, too. He put up a real wacko fight; took five of them to get the manacles on."

So saying, he removed Frank's heavy chains and pushed him roughly through the front gate; he stumbled against Paddy, and shrank away as if the contact stung.

The children were skulking by the side of the house twenty feet beyond the adults, watching and waiting. Bob, Jack and Hughie stood stiffly, hoping Frank would put up another fight; Stuart just looked on quietly, from out of his peaceful, sympathetic little soul; Meggie held her hands to her cheeks, pushing and kneading at them in an agony of fear that someone meant to hurt Frank.

He turned to look at his mother first, black eyes into grey in a dark and bitter communion which had never been spoken, nor ever was. Paddy's fierce blue gaze beat him down, contemptuous and scathing, as if this was what he had expected, and Frank's downcast lids acknowledged his right to be angry. From that day forward Paddy never spoke to his son beyond common civility. But it was the children Frank found hardest to face, ashamed and embarrassed, the bright bird brought home with the sky unplumbed, wings clipped, song drowned into silence.

Meggie waited until after Fee had done her nightly rounds, then she wriggled through the open window and made off across the backyard. She knew where Frank would be, up in the hay in the barn, safe from prying eyes and his father.

"Frank, Frank, where are you?" she said in a stage whisper as she shuffled into the stilly blackness of the barn, her toes exploring the unknown ground in front of her as sensitively as an animal.

"Over here, Meggie," came his tired voice, hardly Frank's voice at all, no life or passion to it.

She followed the sound to where he was stretched out in the hay, and snuggled down beside him with her arms as far around his chest as they would reach. "Oh, Frank, I'm so glad you're back," she said. He groaned, slid down in the straw until he was lower than she, and put his head on her body. Meggie clutched at his thick straight hair, crooning. It was too dark to see her, and the invisible substance of her sympathy undid him. He began to weep, knotting his body into slow twisting rails of pain, his tears soaking her nightgown. Meggie did not weep. Something in her little soul was old enough and woman enough to feel the irresistible, stinging joy of being needed; she sat rocking his head back and forth, back and forth, until his grief expended itself in emptiness.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 祭魔神

    祭魔神

    穿越了?还穿越在一小baby身上?爸爸还是魔神?本应死,却醒来,亲眼看着家人惨死,殆尽天下人之恨,将杀父之仇还清。只因为是魔,就要杀?
  • 纨绔凤儿

    纨绔凤儿

    一个女扮男装的世家子嫡系大少爷,从小被世人唾弃,可是当他再次出现却是亮瞎了一片又一片人群。一手出神入化的医术,耍遍天下。偏偏医尊又不是一安省的,纨绔才是正道儿……
  • 袭月墓

    袭月墓

    米仓山借尸还魂,皇泽寺邪刀作祟,明月峡恶灵出没,鬽魇族忽现人间,古墓的谜团,苍县的僵尸,古老的传闻,千年的宿怨,考古队员神秘失踪,上千死尸突现荒山,小县城一夜之间成为炼狱,这一切究竟是谁布下的惊天之局?宋朝的墓冢里,为何会出现清朝的壁画?是时空扭曲,还是另有玄机?八百多年前的宋朝,又究竟发生过什么事,而为后世的惊天血案埋下伏笔?以马小小为首的“M.C”组,破除重重迷雾,所得到的真相比却表象更加不可思议。这一路走来的所作所为,究竟是对是错?古老血族的复苏,竟与她真正的身份交结纠缠。她的身世逐渐明朗,越接近真相,却为何越加难以看清事实?袭月墓,到底是一座普通墓冢,还是早已留下了事件真相的线索?
  • 妖曜

    妖曜

    这是一个写女主在成长和修炼中与各种势力较量的故事。时间:古代主角:顾瑾宁作品分类:玄幻风格:请端起这碗新手炖的鸡汤……
  • 拱天命

    拱天命

    曾经是江湖十大势力之一的凌家长子长孙,在家族被灭之余,他……无能为力!拜入天下第一门派立志要一展雄图,为家族复仇,但天下乱象风云而起,门派被灭!问天?天不应!问地?地不灵!问自己?我要让这天下涂炭,让这天道永不轮回!欺吾?吾杀他个天翻地覆永不休!
  • 总裁的第七个新娘:买来的妻子

    总裁的第七个新娘:买来的妻子

    他受过严重的心理创伤,情感麻木,对女人只有厌恶没有爱慕。她优雅聪慧,为了不重蹈他前妻的覆辙,婚后生活,步步为营。面对他的无视疏离,她从不曾退缩放弃,坚信爱是化解恨最好的方式。当冷酷外衣终被她层层拨开,他却残忍的发现,自己不过是她复仇的工具。爱已随风飘,情已被海葬,是谁在耳边说,心是可以收回的……
  • 异界灵月公主

    异界灵月公主

    “江湖”一词似乎永远是人们兴奋和无奈的话题,身处江湖的端木琎却心系着另外一片土地。因为她身份的特殊,她能够从小拥有这种感应:感应自己并非如今这个端木琎,感应自己属于另外一片土地。不过,在现实这片土地上,有让她难以割舍的友情。端木府的大小姐端木琎,这个地方所有人包括她自己,都知道她并非端木员外亲生,因此她的身份是一个谜,也没有人想去揭开这个谜,因为这一家人视她为己出。她从小到大的四个好朋友:钟离索逸,钟离府员外的独女,生性好斗,不喜诗书,本性善良;吕柔,外地逃难至此,家中无父无母,更无兄弟姐妹,性格沉稳,靠行医为生;韩风,文武双全,气宇轩昂,同样是韩府员外的独子;曾羽,曾府大少爷,不善诗书善武艺,足智多谋,性格放荡不羁。五人同年生,乃家中独子,从小认识到大,对彼此甚是了解。五个人在江湖上也颇有名号,江湖人称:“冰简”,“冰”,乃冷酷之意,从不对外人有过分的亲近热情;“简”,形容其行事干净利落,不拖泥带水。“冰简”二字同样给人以冷傲之感。五人关系甚为密切,五家人来往也很亲善,比亲兄弟姐妹有过之而不及。由于五人行事作风不拘一格,好打抱不平,因此招来邪门歪派的排挤,誓要除之而后快!在一场居心策划的阴谋追杀中,四个好朋友竟死于非命!痛断肝肠的端木琎誓要报仇雪耻!在报仇后便独自一人去寻找自己的真实身份,终于在另外一个世界找回了自己的能力和使命,孤独地在那个地方冷酷地生存了一段日子:杀妖!失去朋友和亲人的她在和自己的守护神相遇后,发现了自己原来是平妖国的灵月公主,但国家已毁,亲人已逝,这个毁灭的罪魁祸首就是她要斩除的最后恶魔,原来这才是她也是她的族人的最终使命:除魔。于是和守护神及一帮妖精开始了除魔之道。恶魔消失的同时,她为此付出的代价就是失去了所有至亲至爱的人,天下太平,她已无所求了,朋友和亲人的身影,应该是会永远伴随她左右的,在所有美好记忆的那片土地上,最后只留下她孤独却已不悲伤的身影独自守候着自己称为“异界”的那块净土。
  • 女神归来

    女神归来

    艾希发现自己身世迷雾重重,所以就追寻身世之谜,故事从这开始
  • 校草美男之黑夜骑士

    校草美男之黑夜骑士

    耍混蛋,谁能比他更混蛋,明明是去男校读书,却被老爸算计,掉进圈套
  • 明策

    明策

    一场空难,一场穿越;梦回皇明,东江裂变;辽海波诡,峥嵘初显;鞑虏叩关,力挽狂澜;登州危局,借势而起;流寇肆虐,大义天下;四国鼎立,谍谋暗涌;神州陆沉,一木擎扶;逐鹿中原,复我正统;天堑决战,华夏定鼎。他一介亲卫小兵,崛起于辽海,占岛、赚钱、武装、种田只为自保,奈何被时代裹挟,被利益驱使,被权利迷惑,最终被卷入到了天下的争夺之中…穿越如戏,全靠策略,且看《明策》为您展现大明王朝末世烽火的史诗画卷。