Cry of the Hunter - Jack Higgins [53]
Fallon grinned. ‘We’re here,’ he said as he turned the car off the track into the farmyard and cut the engine.
CHAPTER NINE
THE wind rushed through the beech trees plucking most of the remaining leaves from the branches and lifting them high over the roof top. Fallon stood at the kitchen window and looked across the valley to the heather covered hillside. His eyes lifted to where the mountain tops touched the sky and a tiny smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. He felt completely relaxed and at peace. There was a sound behind him and he turned round. Hannah Costello carne into the room. ‘A nice girl yon,’ she said simply.
He nodded. ‘What have you done with her?’
‘I’ve put her in my bed,’ Hannah said. ‘The poor young creature’s all in.’
He moved across to the table. ‘She’s not used to the life.’
‘And how would she be and her a decent young woman?’ Hannah said fiercely as she broke eggs into a frying pan.
Murphy came in, his face shining and his hair tousled and damp. ‘What a place, Mr. Fallon,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Peace and quiet – and the air. I’ve never tasted anything like it.’
Hannah Costello lifted the eggs on to two plates and put them on the table. ‘There, get that inside you,’ she said. ‘There’s plenty of bread and jam, if you’re still hungry afterwards.’
Murphy eagerly started eating. He swallowed the first mouthful and said gaily, ‘Marvellous! You’ve got the touch all right, Mrs. Costello.’
She snorted. ‘None of your blarney here. You’ll pay for it whether you like it or not.’ She picked up two buckets and turned a forbidding look on Fallon. ‘I’ll be in the cow byre. I want to see you when you’ve finished your breakfast.’
When she had gone Murphy grimaced. ‘What a woman, Mr. Fallon. Never the soft word from that one.’
Fallon smiled. ‘You’ll soon find out that she is soft,’ he said. ‘Oh, she’ll charge us for everything we have, but she’ll do anything she can to help. She’s a good woman. I wonder what happened to those two sons of hers.’
Murphy grinned. ‘The appetite this place gives you she probably couldn’t afford to feed them any longer.’
Fallon smiled, swallowed a cup of tea, and went out into the bright morning. Two or three white clouds scudded across a blue sky and the warmth of the sun touched his face. He sauntered across to the cow byre and went in. His nose wrinkled with delight at the old, familiar smell of animals and straw. He chuckled and said, ‘There’s nothing quite like the smell of a cow byre.’
Hannah Costello was sitting on a stool milking. She smiled over her shoulder and said, ‘You know what they say – once a farm boy always a farm boy.’
He moved across and leaned on the stall beside her. ‘There’s something in that,’ he said. ‘Country pleasures are the only ones.’
She laughed grimly. ‘Aye, on a day like this with white clouds and a blue sky but come up here in January. You’d soon change your mind.’
He laughed lightly. ‘Perhaps you’re right.’ He watched her for a moment and then said, ‘What’s happened to the boys?’
Her shoulders dipped rhythmically as her hands worked. She stood up and moved to the next cow. ‘James is dead,’ she said. Her voice was quite flat and unemotional.
‘What happened?’ Fallon said in surprise.
She sighed. ‘He got tired of the farm. Fancied going adventuring. He joined the Ulster Rifles.