Chapter 8. Finn

1894 St.Ives England

Innis heard his twin daughters starting to stir in the nursery.

He gently patted them till they were quiet and watched as Charlotte

and Beatrice reached for each other in their sleep.

That's all any of us want he thought to himself.

As he got back to bed, Miriam turned to him and said she'd just

had a dream about her Mother. Innis had never met Miriam's Mother.

She'd died when Miriam was still in her teens - long before they'd

ever met and married.

"We were sitting on the house stairs and she was brushing out my

hair. My sister Edith and I used to put twigs and flowers in our hair

and run through the forest and hedgerows pretending to be druid

princesses."

Innis smiled.

"As Mother was brushing my hair, she told me that we'd be alright."

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"Who would be?" Innis asked.

"The baby and me."

Innis sat up. "Are you pregnant?"

"I've been thinking I might be."

He reached for Miriam's hand under the blankets, the twins had

been a difficult pregnancy. Through the windows Innis could see

the night sky starting to lighten.

"Not much chance of going back to sleep now," he said,

"I'll fix us some tea."

"Let me finish." Miriam said. "On the step next to her was a

beautiful statue of a peacock. I'd never seen it before, so in my

dream I asked Mother about it."

Innis felt his chest start to tighten.

"Mother said she was looking after it for someone."

Trying to keep the fright out of his voice, Innis asked Miriam

if her Mother had said anything else. Miriam didn't answer.

He looked over and saw that she was fast asleep.

Innis had talked to Miriam about his time in Australia.

He'd told her about some of the things he'd seen and done,

but he'd never spoken about the Loch Ard shipwreck

or the peacock statue..

It had been almost 5 years since he'd returned to England.

He'd settled in Cornwall, married and started a family, and in

all that time not a word or a whisper from Eurides.

Why is she speaking to me now? and why through Miriam?

Innis got out of bed. He checked on the girls and went into the

garden to think. It was cold outside. so he started a fire in the

yard and warmed his hands.

Low on the horizon, only a faint sliver of the moon remained of

the night sky. Innis thought about the second chance at life

Eurides had given him.

His breath steamed in the morning air.

.

*

Before the birth, the mid-wife listened to the baby's heartbeat

and declared it to be that of a young bull.

"If it's a boy,'' Innis said. "His name will be Finn."

Miriam smiled weakly and squeezed his hand. The mid-wife

shuffled him out of the room. Miriam's Father Finn, was one of

the most decent men that Innis had ever met and now he was

gone too.

The wind howled across the roof tops for most of the night.

Innis could still hear it tugging at the shuttered windows.

The mid-wife handed him his swaddled new born son.

"Miriam is resting now." she said.

Baby Finn yawned and stretched in his arms

"It's been a long night for all of us my friend." Innis said.

Baby Finn opened his eyes and smiled.

"You don't see that too often," the mid-wife said. "He seems

to know who you are already."

Innis looked into his son's hazel coloured eyes and knew

his agreement with Eurides had changed.

*