The Selkie Read Online Free

ground, eyed the younger woman skeptically. Liz shooed her friend toward the door, waving her hands in a sweeping motion. “ Leave the poor, wee thing, Phyllis. She’s suffered enough. ”
    Maggie blushed. They knew. Nora would have told Liz and Phyllis everything, about Matthew and her job, but she was too exhausted to be mortified.
    “ Of course. ” Phyllis relented, moving reluctantly toward the door. “ But if you need any help sorting through Nora’s things, you let me know. Poor Nora. She was a lovely woman, but didn’t possess a single organizational bone in her body. ” The old lady scanned the dusty living room one more time, and then shook her head.
    “ Oh, Phyllis, ” Liz chided. “ Nora was hardly in any state to clean house. The blessed woman could barely find her spectacles on her head most days. ” She offered a sad smile to Maggie. “ She wasn’t well at the end, love, wasn’t herself. So confused. She’d just sit and stare and spout old bits of folklore. Such a shame. ”
    The thought of her gran staring into space recounting Orkney myths was about as heartbreaking as anything. She didn’t want to hear any more.
    “ We’ll leave you be, ” Liz murmured, squeezing Maggie’s biceps.
    Maggie tried to smile as they headed out the creaky front door and back to Liz’s car. She knew they meant well. They’d been close to Nora, and would have wanted to help.
    “ Just not right now, ” she murmured as they disappeared down the road.
    She meandered slowly through the old house, quietly touching Nora’s knickknacks, and there were a great many of them. Phyllis was probably right. Gran had been somewhat of a hoarder. She could never resist picking up a pretty bottle or antique necklace from the local market. But Maggie didn’t mind the clutter. Right now, it was comfortable. She almost felt she could absorb her grandmother’s presence through the items she’d left behind.
    Nora had been the last surviving member of Maggie’s family. Maggie’s parents had been dead for years, having perished in a car crash together. In a way, this death was harder to take. Nora MacLean had been a larger-than-life personality, a strong woman who’d been passionate about her Orkney heritage and its rugged landscape. She’d played host to her granddaughter many a summer, and Maggie adored her with a fierceness that was unparalleled. The old woman’s death was quickly sucking the life out of her.
    She decided she would stay on in Kirkwall for a time after the funeral. Exploring St. Magnus Cathedral and roaming along the beaches would remind her of the times she’d sat at Nora’s knee, listening to the old woman spin tales of the mythical Finmen and seductive selkie folk.
    She just had to get through the funeral now. And try to figure out what she would do with Nora’s estate. She knew Nora would have wanted her to stay in Orkney, but the quiet, seemingly magical, island was worlds away from downtown Toronto.
    “ Of course, ” she reminded herself as she fingered the yellowed piece of lace that acted as a tablecloth on the kitchen table, “ there’s really nothing to go home for anyway. ” The idea of heading back was currently as appealing as diving into a pool of piranhas wearing a meat bikini.
    The last three months had been some of the worst in Maggie’s life. Losing the job that had been her passion. Being granted the glorious opportunity to see her ex-fiancé cheating on her. And then a series of discouraging temp jobs that never seemed to lead to anything more substantial than one-week assignments. To say nothing about the fact that Matthew wouldn’t leave her alone. He kept calling, kept trying to apologize. Luckily, although she’d had some lows, she never reached the kind of low that might send her tumbling back into a cheater’s arms.
    Now, with Gran’s death, it felt like the last possible rug had been pulled out from under her. This was low.
    In truth, things had been bad for a while.