Greta had heard somewhere that when a person was about to die, their whole life flashed before them very slowly. Now she knew that it was true. She stopped feeling the pain; she was safe in her mother’s arms and could hear her sweet voice singing a gentle lullaby. She had been only three years old, but she still knew it by heart.
“Go tae sleep my little darlin’,
Go tae sleep my own one,
Rest yer weary head ’til mornin’,
’Til ye see the mornin’ sun.”
Then her father was lifting her onto his shoulders and running into their cottage, where she smelled freshly baked bread and roast chicken. After supper, she sat on his lap, dozing while he told her a bedtime story about elves and princesses, then she was being lifted into bed and covered in a soft woolen blanket.
Then all of a sudden, she was a little older and had breasts, and suddenly all the boys wanted to kiss her and put their arms around her. As well as that, she was beginning to notice how handsome the boy down the street was, and many of the other boys too. She let one or two of them kiss her, and it felt wonderful, as if her whole body, and not just her lips, were tingling, and there was a strange, sweet flutter between her legs.
Then, when she was only fourteen summers, one of the boys asked her to marry him, but her father said she was too young, and she was glad. She liked being a girl, although she helped on the farm the way the boys did. She was happy, and every day was an adventure, but then came the awful day when her mother became sick.
She watched her slowly fade away and remembered the feeling of sadness and anger as she watched her mother’s eyes close for the last time. How could the god she had believed in be so cruel as to take her mother, the dearest person in the world to her, away?
Greta’s father was devastated, but then the fever came to claim him too. He lived for a short while, but gradually his hold on life slipped away, and Greta had always believed that he had died of a broken heart. She remembered how devastated she had been at the time, but she was not sad now. She was looking at them again; they were by her side looking healthy and happy, smiling at her.
Suddenly she was not afraid anymore. She was going to heaven, and her parents were waiting for her, reaching out their arms to pull her close and take her to paradise. She called out to them with her last breath, and they answered.
“Mammy! Da! Stay where ye are! I am comin’!” she cried.
“Greta! Come here! We are waitin’ for ye!” they answered.
She reached out to them, then the worst bout of coughing she had experienced so far stopped her breath. Yet she was smiling as she closed her eyes and lay still, waiting for death to come and get her.
* * *
Finn set the child down outside and looked behind him to see where the young woman was. She was nowhere to be seen. In his entire life, Finn had rarely felt fear, but in the last hour, it had assailed him and settled in his gut like a coiled snake waiting to strike him down. He watched the smoke billowing out of the door of the church and wondered if the young woman was still alive.
Why should I care?he thought suddenly.She is a stranger. I do not know anything about her. She is likely just another crofter’s daughter with a pretty face.
However, in his heart, he knew she was more than that. She was stubborn, she was determined, and above all, she was brave. She had been prepared to give her life to save the children, and it looked as though she had.
Suddenly one of the beams from the church roof fell inward with an awful rending crash. Finn stared at it in horror, his heart sinking. Surely no one could have survived that? He stood, indecisive, for a few seconds more, then he plunged into the church before he could change his mind. He had to save her if he could.
* * *
Liam heard one of his men yell Finn’s name and turned around just in time to see his brother disappearing into the choking smoke of the church.
“Finn!” he yelled in panic as he ran up as close as he could to the burning building. “FINN! Come back, you eejit!” Once again, he tried to approach the building, but he was beaten back by the heat, smoke, and his own fear. He sank onto his knees on the ground, wondering what on Earth had possessed his brother to do such a desperately stupid thing.
I am never going tae see him again,Liam thought. He did not relish the thought of leading a band of ill-disciplined, dirty, and occasionally downright evil men on his own. They would run rings around him. He wished that he believed in some power that would stretch a hand into the flames and pull Finn out. They had been through the worst of times together, and now he was gone.
Then suddenly, a miracle happened.
* * *
Finn was completely blind. He was inching his way forward by instinct, coughing painfully while his eyes wept stinging tears. Flames were consuming the wooden furniture around him, and when he came to the beam that had fallen from the roof, he could not think of a way to pass it.
He had no idea if the young woman was behind it, beside it, or even underneath it, but he had to try to find her. Something was driving him on, something he could not name or understand. He yelled in frustration as he thought of calling out her name, only to realize that he had no idea what it was.
Then he heard it, the cry of a woman quite close to him on his left-hand side. The flames were roaring so loudly now that it was a miracle he heard it at all, but his heart began to beat frantically as he was filled with renewed hope. He crawled alongside the burning beam until he saw the faint shape of her hand lying on the floor. There was a small piece of unburnt wood leaning against another, forming a tiny shelter of sorts, and the girl was lying inside it. Was she alive?
He slid along the floor to see if her heart was still beating, so racked by coughing that he could hardly breathe. Finn stretched out his arm and put a finger to her throat. There was still a faint pulse there. She was alive, but in what condition?
Carefully, he stood up, then reached down and picked her up, hindered by the fumes in his lungs. Determination drove him on, however, particularly when he was rewarded by another feeble moan.