“They flew over the church. ’Tis a sign that some one’ll be called away before long.” And murmuring so that Alma could scarcely hear, she added: “If it be Thy will, O Lord, I should be taken, then Thy will be done!”
But to herself she thought: “If it should be the young mistress that’s called, then Heaven be praised. I am old and hard, I can wear on for a few years more, but the burden’s over-heavy on her; if the Lord would take her in His mercy.... God’s will be done.”
During the period of Alma’s illness, a certain amount of unrest had made itself apparent in the parish.
First of all, there were rumours abroad. No one could say where they had started, or how; it was impossible to trace anything more than the inevitable “So-and-so said so-and-so.” But the rumours were of a startling character, and it was highly desirable to find out whether they originated from a reliable source or not.
Briefly, the matter was this: it was whispered that Ormarr’s wife had given birth to her child as far back as the beginning of March.
And people made their calculations. The marriage had taken place at the beginning of September the previous year. That made the birth a great deal earlier than it should have been. And yet the child was reported to be strong and well, by no means as if born before its time.
It was mysterious. The good folk searched their memories; they could recall nothing unseemly in Runa’s behaviour as they had known her; far from it. The marriage had been rather sudden, true, but they had found nothing very extraordinary in that. The girl had been waiting for Ormarr, no doubt; no one had ever heard any other man’s name coupled with hers. It was looked on as a pretty example of a maiden’s patient waiting for her chosen lover, and Runa had risen in the general esteem thereby. But now—there were those who began to consider whether they might not have been over-hasty in their conclusions.
It looked as if there were something more behind it. And it was not pleasant to find that one had been deceived.
Nothing had leaked out as to Sera Ketill’s little affair with his foster-sister some months earlier, and no one now thought for a moment of connecting him in any way with the business.