The Fire's Center Read Online Free Page A

the land was cleared. The lovely cottages we had been living in had been razed to the ground."
     
    He stared at her in shock. "That's terrible! You had no choice but to leave?"
     
    Riona shook her head. "None at all. We had to find somewhere we could afford quickly, and jobs if we could. Perhaps a patch of land to grow vegetables on. But there was nothing. All fourteen of us, plus Padraig’s wife Nuala and their three small children, and Michael’s wife Emer, who had been expecting their first child, were all forced to move a small fisherman’s cottage barely large enough for four people, let alone eighteen."
     
    He shook his head pityingly. "How on earth did you manage?"
     
    "My brothers built a second storey into the roof of the cottage, but it was terribly crowded and very uncomfortable. At least it was warmer up there with all the unmarried boys and girls sleeping side by side, huddled together for warmth. Down below the wind whipped unmercifully under the splintered door, and the stone floor ran with damp. The married couples slept down there with the children, so they wouldn't get hurt going up and down the ladder."
     
    "It must have been very hard for you," he said, offering her a bottle of ginger beer from the basket of food he had had packed for him at the inn they had changed horses at.
     
    She took it with a nod and drank thirstily. "It was. For a time we did the best we could, fishing and then trading the surplus catch for other foodstuffs. But there was little anyone had worth trading. We avoided buying food, for we wanted to conserve our small hoard of coins for as long as possible."
     
    "Very sensible."
     
    "Then disaster struck in the village, with an epidemic we began to call relapsing fever, a strange disease which often killed just as the person seemed to be recovering. "Padraig’s three small children, his wife Nuala, and my mother, who insisted on nursing them night and day, all succumbed to the fever, as did one of my older brothers, Seosamh, and one of my younger sisters, Eilis."
     
    "My God. I had heard how harsh conditions were," he said, taking out a small pocket notebook and pencil and beginning to jot down notes, "but you're the first person to survive through such a thing to give me actual details."
     
    She stared at him open-mouthed.
     
    He caught her look of consternation and began to apologize at once. "I'm sorry, Miss Connolly, I don't wish to appear callous. But the more information we doctors have about the famine and diseases it seems to have brought, the more lives we may be able to save."
     
    "I suppose," she said stiffly.
     
    "So all the people who slept in the downstairs area of the cottage succumbed, you say?"
     
    She thought about it and nodded. "Yes, for the most part."
     
    "And the others? Forgive me, but you did mention that you were the eldest now. What happened to, I believe it was Padraig, who was the eldest?"
     
    "He and Martin drowned in a shipwreck."
     
    "Oh no. I'm so sorry. And what of Michael and his wife?"
     
    Riona swallowed hard. "Emer died in the childbed, of fever. The infant was stillborn. Michael lost his wits and ran from the cottage. My father Declan decided to try to go after him. So he packed up and went to Dublin to search, and for work."
     
    "What a dreadful tragedy. I find it remarkable that in those conditions as many of you were spared as there were. I hear there is even typhus up in Donegal."
     
    She nodded. "There was. I nursed everyone as best I could, and they got well."
     
    "And you didn't take sick?" he said, staring at her as though she had sprouted three heads.
     
    "No. I was very fortunate. I spent a lot of time out in the fresh air looking for food. We tried to avoid the town as much as possible. But with no word from Father, well, someone has to try to find him."
     
    He nodded. "I understand. I just wonder how your family will manage without you. I mean, I've promised to send the money and I certainly shall, but you must