Read Online Under the July Sun by Barbara Jones - Free Book Online Page B

and drove on. The bumping had ceased so Cat gathered they were on a smooth surface. Then the vehicle stopped again and someone opened the car door and pulled her out. She was bundled into what she thought was some sort of barn as she could smell hay and hear chickens. But so many farms had chickens; she could not tell where she was.
    Someone pushed her down onto a hay bale and she heard the sound of several pairs of boots approaching. The voice of the person who abducted her spoke first.
    â€˜Well Miss, ye’re here to be taught a lesson.’
    She didn’t answer.
    â€˜I said ye’re here to be taught a lesson. What have ye to say for yerself?’ He paused waiting for her to reply, but she remained silent. ‘Nuttin’, by the sound of it.’
    Cat thought she recognised his voice, but it was muffled, as though the man was speaking through a scarf on a cold day.
    â€˜Got plenty to say normally.’ It was the first voice again.
    The hood was hot and she felt she was going to be sick, but she plucked up the courage to sound defiant. ‘What d’ye want with me?’
    â€˜â€™Tis more like what do ye want with English soldiers. Filthy little whore.’
    Then another voice asked, ‘Is it ready?’ and the sack was suddenly yanked off her head. It was dark and she couldn’t see, but before there was time to adjust to the gloom, someone blindfolded her. There was no point fighting, she was out-numbered, so she decided to comply; not provoke them, then maybe they would let her go.
    Suddenly one of them grabbed her by the hair from behind and started chopping at her locks with what sounded like scissors. She tried to dodge out of the way but one of the men smacked her face and told her to hold still; then little by little she felt her hair falling onto her shoulders and her lap.
    Time passed until she felt there couldn’t possibly be any more hair to cut, but then she felt her scalp being scored by a razor until she realised her head must now be completely bald. Soon she smelt tar and felt the tacky substance being smeared across her naked skull before she sensed something soft descending gently onto her head, then falling lightly onto her shoulders. She could smell chickens.
    * * *
    Tom felt unsettled after the meeting earlier that night at Crampscastle. He’d told the gang that it was not for him, and they had sworn him to secrecy before he made his way back to Monroe.
    He knew one or two of them, but where on God’s earth , he wondered, had they conjured up the rest from ? He would not have been surprised to see Paddy Hogan, but he was not amongst them.
    He had begun unlacing his boots before going to bed when he heard what sounded like one of the kittens mewing outside. He stopped what he was doing. The noise came again, so he laced up his boots and went outside to listen.
    He crossed the yard and stood by the gate; and when the sound came again he walked up the boreen thinking perhaps a kitten had become separated from its mother in the barn. He opened the barn door and struck a match to light the hurricane lamp, then he saw Cat - and all he could say was, ‘God in heaven!’

8
The Royal Irish Constabulary Office
Fethard,
November 1914
    â€˜So, ye’re no nearer catchin’ the swines then?’ Ned said to Brendan and leaned on the desk holding his head in his hands. Outside the lashing November rain beat against the windows.
    Brendan frowned. ‘No.’
    â€˜Have ye questioned Paddy Hogan?’
    â€˜Sure, I went out to the Hogan’s place ages ago to talk to him and his mother, but I’m not sure he had any direct involvement. He could account for his whereabouts that night.’
    â€˜So, where was he?’
    â€˜He says he was at home and that Father Ryan had been out to dine with them that evenin’.’
    â€˜Huh! And ye believed him?’
    â€˜His mother confirmed it.’
    â€˜Ye know as well as I do