“Where am I?”
And, flushing slightly, she went on:
“That was Ketill’s voice.”
She pressed her hands to her breast once more, and sank down. Her heart had ceased to beat.
Her sudden, unexpected death came with a shock to the others, and they stopped weeping. For a moment all stood as if turned to stone.
Then they lifted her up and laid her on the bed beside her husband. And all knelt beside the bed in silent prayer.
The candle flickered in the dark, throwing a restless gleam on the pale faces of the dead. The darkness seemed creeping in to cover them.
For a little all was deathly still.
Then old Kata rose and opened a window—“to let the souls pass out.” And, going over to the others, she knelt with them beside the bed.
But the light went out in the draught, and darkness closed about the living and the dead.