She stood unresolved, chafing the arms of her dress, unable to keep warm. But at that moment a solitary figure came up the path towards her, and she recognized the shawl and bound hair of her aunt, stooped beneath a large bundle of sticks.
“Inside with you, lass,” said the woman evenly, again not evincing the least surprise. “You’ll catch your death.”
“Let me help you with your load,” the girl offered.
“I can quite carry my own burden, Mary. Just open the door for me; I’ll walk through it.” Mary did as she asked. They went inside.
The single room was dark and low-ceilinged, with no light but the hearth fire, which played strange shadows across the rough stones and wooden bracings. Herbs, tools and utensils, bizarre talismans hung from the walls. The floor was of solid earth. A wooden table and chair, two frameless beds, an ancient rocking chair---there were no other furnishings.
“Sit by the fire, child, and wrap a blanket around you. I’ll have the tea.....” But studying her face more closely, the old woman put a hand to her forehead, and could not entirely suppress a look of concern. “Into bed with you, Mary, you’re burning with fever.” And she quickly arranged warm coverings for the thin, down mattress, which lay on a jutting shelf of stone covered with straw, and threw more wood on the fire.
Soon the room was warm, and in its primitive way, quite comfortable. Mary lay in the bed, her shivering stopped, and the herb tea that her aunt had given her calming her nerves. But still there were the questions that would not rest.
“Aunt Margaret,” she began pensively, eyes glittering. “You quarreled with mother, and now she can bear her cross no longer, and she says you must tell me everything.” Though the sentence was hardly coherent, the old woman nodded her understanding. She came and sat on the bed, taking the young girl’s hand in her own.
“I’ll tell you this much now, and then you must sleep. There’ll be worlds of time in the morning. Will you promise me you’ll sleep, and trust
me till the sunrise?” The daughter nodded.