Serpents in the Garden by Anna Belfrage Read Free Book Online Page A

long overdue.
    “If the mountain doesn’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed must come to the mountain.” She wrapped her new shawl around her shoulders.
    “I don’t think Jenny will take kindly to being likened to a mountain,” Matthew said, before going back to his work.
    “Who would?” Alex dropped a kiss on his head and held out her hand to Adam. “Want to come?”
    “It’s a long walk for a wee lad,” Matthew warned.
    Alex bent down to scrape at something sticky that decorated Adam’s worn smock. “I can carry him part of the way.”
    “I can walk.” Adam lifted his bare leg in the general direction of his father. “Look, Da, I have strong legs.”
    “Aye, you do, laddie, very strong.” Matthew smiled at his son. “Take Angus with you,” he added, looking at Alex. She made a face but didn’t even try to argue; a male escort was a prerequisite.
    With Angus a silent shadow in her wake, Alex strolled along hand in hand with her youngest son, listening to his very long account of how Daniel had helped him set Mrs Pollyanna’s leg.
    “…I held her, and she squawked something terrible, she did.”
    Alex smiled down at him. “How did she break her leg to begin with?”
    Adam shrugged. He had found her lying on her back in the hencoop, and gone rushing for help.
    “She’s getting on a bit, honey. Soon she’ll be dead.”
    Adam looked up at her from wide, dark hazel eyes. “Not yet.”
    “No, of course not,” Alex murmured.
    Their youngest son collected hurt animals, and over the last year, the stable had seen a badly injured sparrow that had died despite Matthew’s best efforts, a frog with no legs that Alex had secretly bashed to death to put it out of its misery, a baby raccoon that expired in less than an hour, and the newborn piglet that Adam had dragged half alive from below its farrowing mother. The piglet thrived, and Alex had recently confided to Matthew that she was going to have major problems slicing ham from a pig that had once been called Arthur.
    They had detoured off the path to pick chanterelles when Alex spotted the gleaming yellow hats in a mossy hollow. She smoothed down Adam’s curling hair, allowing her fingers to linger on his nape. Her youngest son was a restful person to be with, had been from the moment he entered the world. Placid and calm as a baby, he was now a placid and calm three-year-old who gracefully allowed himself to be pampered by the rest of his very large family.
    From one son her thoughts leapt to another: her Jacob. Where was he now, her boy, and was he alright? Her belly turned at the thought of weeks at sea, and especially in boats that in her considered opinion should be restricted to small lakes. Alex was swamped by a sudden wave of loss. What if Jacob never came back? Maybe he would disappear into a life very far from here, and all that she’d ever get from him would be the odd letter, like once a year or so. It made her heart shrivel. She wanted him here, close. She wanted to thread her fingers through his thick blond hair, and see him rear back in irritation at this far too motherly gesture.
    “Mama?” Adam tugged at her hand. He pointed at the approaching horse, a wide grin on his face.
    Alex smiled. To Adam, his big brother Ian was very close to God, coming second only to Da in his inner ranking.
    Ian held in his horse and grinned back, lowering Malcolm to the ground to allow him to throw himself at his granny.
    “Off to visit us, are you?” Ian asked.
    “Not you as such,” Alex told him, hugging Malcolm back. “I see you all the time, don’t I? I was planning on having a cosy chat with Jenny.”
    An unreadable expression flashed across Ian’s face and then the smile was back, hazel eyes regarding her warily. “A chat?”
    She knew him too well to be fooled by his bland smile. For an instant, she met his eyes, could read in their depths just how much he was hurting. His lashes swept down and, from the set of his mouth, Alex knew there’d be no