The Ground She Walks Upon by Meagan McKinney Read Free Book Online Page A

there in his castle a-thinkin' of spells to put upon our fair town!" The grubby-faced boy skipped a stone across the small lake in front of Trevallyan Castle. His companions sat upon the rotting trunk of a fallen oak tree.
    "Aye. He goes to London nigh every season and he don't come back for weeks. " A redheaded boy stood up and looked in the direction of the castle. "Me mam says he's the divil himself livin' in County Lir. "
    "He murdered his own wife!" A shrill cry came from the rear of the young crowd. A tall, thin boy emerged, his white features turned toward the castle. "He done put her in the grave hisself!"
    "That's why he visits her every day!" Another young boy cried out. "The guilt cuts into him. "
    "Nonsense, " said a black-haired girl who sat in their midst. "If he's the devil, he can't be feeling any guilt. "
    "Still, he murdered his own wife!"
    "Grania said she died because she was with child, " the girl retorted, using much better English than the hooligans around her.
    "Then why does he scare the townfolk near to death ever' time he comes to town?"
    "That's right!" chimed another urchin. "Trevallyan goes a-runnin' his stallion through our fields like he be a-runnin' on the divil's heels. He nigh killed me babby sister, Janey, when he was chasin' that fox with his friends, drunker than a priest on Sunday eve. If he's not the divil, I don't know who he is. "
    "Grania says not to be afraid of him. So I'm not. " The girl crossed her arms over her budding chest and put her nose in the air, as if she were far superior to the ragtag bunch around her.
    "Ravenna, " the redheaded boy said, "he's the divil, I tell ye, and Grania ought to know 'cause she's a witch. "
    "She is not!" the dark-haired girl, Ravenna, shouted back, her fine black brows knitted together in a furious scowl. "Grania is no witch! And I know that for a fact. "
    "You hold your head high above us, and you look down upon us 'cause we don't talk in fine words like yourself, but that don't change the townfolk from thinkin' yer grandmother's a witch. "
    "The townfolk are fools. " Ravenna turned her wrath on Malachi, the redheaded boy. "And what have you to say for yourself that you believe such lies?"
    "The townfolk call Grania a witch and Trevallyan a warlock. I'll not be sayin' different without proof. "
    "Proof! Proof! I'll give you proof! Grania raised me as her own. I love her as I would love my own ma. If she were a witch, I'd be knowin' it. For I'd be a witch, too!"
    The gaggle of boys grew quiet, as if Ravenna had just voiced their thoughts.
    "Are you a witch, Ravenna?" Malachi whispered. "Me mam says you must be 'cause you've had too much schoolin' for a girl and ye never come to Mass. "
    "That's right!" Sean, the tall, thin boy, backed him up.
    "What's goin' to Mass got to do with being a witch?" Ravenna's scowl grew darker. "And if I know more than you, it's because Grania wanted me to be a fine lady one day and she found me tutors. What's wrong with that? I'm no different than anyone else. " She turned and a curtain of jet-black hair hid her hurt expression from the boys.
    "Why don't you come to Mass, Ravenna?" Malachi, slightly older than Ravenna's thirteen years and perhaps six inches shorter as well, touched the young girl on her shoulder.
    Ravenna stepped away, giving him a peek at her pale oval face. "I'll not be goin' to no Mass. Those old biddies already sneer at me in town. I won't have them kickin' me out of church because I'm a bastard. "
    The boys silently watched her walk toward the lake. When they grew to be men they would no doubt marvel at her delicacy, but right now, though Ravenna wasn't tall, she towered over the lot of them, her flashing blue-violet eyes terrorizing them, and the mystical, mysterious power of her budding womanhood keeping them in their place.
    "Ravenna, " Malachi said to her stiff, unwelcoming back, "I don't care if you're a witch. In fact, if you are, I'm glad. For you are the one who can prove or disprove