Northern Spirit Read Online Free Page B

cow, David struggled to hold on to her
halter and she fell crashing to the floor and started to thrash about.
    Barry then lay on the floor and pushed his arm deep inside the cow’s
body and tried to untangle the legs of the calf, but had to fight with the
forces of nature; the more he pushed the calf back to reach the other leg, the
more Silver tried to push the calf out. ‘Dang it, Hannah. Where are you? Come
on, hurry up. Where’s the rope?’
    As Hannah rushed back, her face and neck were flushed with
embarrassment and, with trembling hands she tried to tie one of the soft
calving ropes to the calf’s leg.
    David felt sympathy towards the girl and was sorry his mistake had
caused her to be reproved. He bent low and reached out with his hand to help,
but Barry shouted, ‘Watch what you’re doing, Davey. Keep hold of the cow’s
head!’
    Barry grimaced and writhed on the floor, his whole arm now lost inside
the cow’s body. ‘Ahhh . . . gotcha!’ and he gently eased out the calf’s other
leg and snatched the other rope from Hannah and tied it to the calf. ‘Right . .
. come on, Hannah, you can pull.’ But with one big push from Silver, the calf
easily slipped out with a flood of mucus and water.
    Silver immediately staggered to her feet and swung around to wash her
newborn calf, nudging it with soft grunting noises, as the calf thrust its head
about looking for the teat of its mother.
    To see his mistake corrected David felt humbled, and bent over the calf
to examine it and said, ‘It’s a heifer.’ He then muttered a half-hearted
invitation to Barry, ‘Do you want to come in for a drink?’ And he gestured to
Tom who was peering over the loosebox door. ‘Go and ask Mum to put the kettle
on, Tom, to make Barry and . . . and . . . this young lady a cup of tea.’
    And unseen by anyone, Hannah Robson bit her lip for the third time that
evening.
    ‘That’s okay, Davey,’ Barry interrupted. ‘We won’t stay. We’ve another
call to make in Langdale and we don’t want to be late home. Please give my
regards to your mother, though.’
    David brought a bucket of warm soapy water and a towel from the dairy
to wash their hands and arms in and as the two vets started to remove their
overalls, David watched Hannah as she struggled to pull her damp overalls off
from over the top of her jeans. As he caught her eye, she showed great contempt
for his indiscretion, and the indifference in her eyes humiliated him and he
quickly looked away. To hide his embarrassment, David started to wash the
calving equipment and then threw down some fresh straw to bed the cow and calf
down for the evening. He purposely turned away as Barry left.
    Realising David’s remorse, Barry returned momentarily and put his arm
on his shoulder. ‘Don’t fret, Davey. We’ve had a good result tonight and none
of them will be any the worse for it. Ring me if you’re ever worried, wont you.
I know it’s going to be hard for you all. I just . . .’ but David interrupted,
and pulled away before Barry could say anything else that would embarrass him
further in front of this girl. ‘We’ll all be fine,’ his voice was
uncharacteristically cold. ‘Don’t worry about us.’
    David watched the headlights of the Mercedes disappear out of sight,
and the only brightness outside came from the kitchen windows as a shaft of
light fell on the cold and damp farmyard floor. He left the lights on in the
loosebox and walked outside into the evening’s air. He noticed that the yard
gate was left undone and felt compelled to close it.
    When David came in the house he ignored his mother and didn’t seem to
hear her as she asked after Barry Fitzgerald . Kathy was disappointed in
him, but before she was able to repeat her question, David had disappeared
upstairs.
    Kathy was used to difficult teenagers, as Linzi was still only eighteen
and during her weekend breaks home from college was capable of causing
friction. But these moods of David’s were alien to