Shadow On The Fells

“Thousands, more likely,” Jim remarked. “Maybe you have something there, then, but I am no architect—or expert on what folks want, for that matter. You need to talk to people who know about stuff like that. Anyway, I’ll see what I can do about your shower. Oh, and I’m afraid the roof trusses in the barn are rotten, six of them, at least. It would be a big mistake not to replace them.”

“Just order what you need,” Will said. Suddenly, he felt stifled. He had come here to relax, not open himself up to a whole new set of problems like rotten roof trusses and planning applications. Perhaps he should just tell the architect to put everything on hold for a while...but then again, he still had to survive, and his savings weren’t going to last forever.

He saw Jim off then turned to the woodstove. “Come on, Max,” he said. “Let’s go and get you cleaned up.”

It was much later, as he sat in the garden watching the sun slowly disappear, that Chrissie’s face slid into his mind.

She had been so angry with him, standing stalwart with her dogs at her feet, blue eyes blazing. And then she’d surprised him by revealing a different side to her nature, when they had hauled at the trapped sheep together, side by side, their fingers locked into its oily wool. Her sheer determination had freed it. There was no doubt in Will’s mind about that.

Yet her face had been a picture when she’d ended up sprawled on top of him, bright red with embarrassment. Funny, really, when she came across so tough and strong-minded. Perhaps some of that self-assurance was an act.

Who was he to judge her if it was? He had acted a part every day in his job, putting on a front for his clients, judges, juries...the whole world, if he was honest with himself. Maybe that was what most people did. Maybe, underneath, everyone was vulnerable. Some just hid it better than others.

The relief Chrissie had shown when the tough little ewe eventually ran off up the hill with a series of stiff-legged jumps had been no act—he was sure of that. Her face had crumpled with emotion...until she’d turned to look at him. And the way she’d just walked off with her dogs down the steep hillside, her head held high... He had never met any woman like her.

Anyway, he had certainly learned his lesson. If he saw her again—especially if he was walking Max—then he’d know to steer well clear.

* * *

CHRISSIE WAS CONSUMED with anger as she headed homeward with Tess and Fly at her heels. Will Devlin, whoever he was, had ruined her day. Not just because he’d let his dog terrify the sheep, but because he’d made her feel like a fool when they’d pulled the ewe out of the crevice and she’d fallen on him. No one ever made Chrissie Marsh look foolish.

Her whole day had been wasted and it was all his fault. What kind of idiot let a dog like that loose on the fell, anyway, especially at lambing time? Well, if there was any damage then he would be paying for it; she hadn’t been joking about that.

The ewe that had fallen was quite likely to lamb too early after all that stress. It was hard enough for the lambs to survive up here as it was; premature labor would mean Chrissie would have to keep mother and lamb—hopefully not lambs—on the lowlands for longer. Well, at least lambing time was imminent so they couldn’t be very premature, but shock could have unpredictable effects, even resulting in lambs being stillborn.

And she hadn’t yet ruled out the possibility of finding more damaged sheep. Anything could have happened to them when they ran away from the dog. In normal circumstances, fell sheep were sure-footed and knew their territory far too well to get into difficulties, but today had been something else—something she really could have done without.

Homeowner or not, Will Devlin and his fancy clothes had no place up in these hills. He must have bought a holiday cottage somewhere around here. In the village, probably.

It was Tess who noticed it first. She stopped, head up to sniff the air, whining into the relentless wind that bent the stunted trees and bushes toward the ground. Chrissie followed her gaze with a prickle of apprehension. “What is it, girl?

The black-and-white collie raced off toward a rocky outcrop, closely followed by Fly. Chrissie headed off after them, using her crook to stop her from slipping on the sharp scree. Her heart fell when she peered over the ominous drop. A white shape lay on the rocks far below.

On a normal day the ewe could have easily traversed the dangerous surface. Today, though, in an obvious panic and separated from the flock, she must have lost her footing on the patch of unstable scree and slipped over the edge...falling to her doom.

Although she was used to the harsh ways of nature, where death often seemed to loom around every corner, losing one of her flock so needlessly—so wastefully—filled Chrissie with rage at the man who had unwittingly caused it. He was so ignorant. She could only hope that this sheep’s death had been quick and painless. And it was dead, she was sure of it. The ewe’s legs were twisted into peculiar shapes and it stared up at her through vacant eyes.

A rush of tears overwhelmed her, cutting through the anger. What if it was still holding on—and suffering? She had to be sure.

Telling the dogs to “lie” and “stay,” Chrissie carefully negotiated the rocky ledge and found a place near one end where it sloped off more gradually, allowing her to climb down and inch across to where the sheep was lying. Its body was still warm and soft to the touch, but its eyes were glazing over and it gazed right past her, into eternity.

“Poor lamb,” she murmured, stroking the rough hair on the ewe’s black-and-white face, recognizing its distinctive markings at once. This would have been the sheep’s first lambing and now it would never happen, all because of a misfit from the city and his stupid dog. Tourists like him should be banned from everywhere but the villages that depended on them for their livelihood.

With a sharp whistle to Tess and Fly, Chrissie headed homeward. There was nothing else to do here.

* * *

THE YARD AT High Bracken was quiet. As quiet as the poor dead sheep, thought Chrissie with a knot in her stomach. Despondency flooded her veins. She certainly hadn’t expected the gather to end like this. Tess and Fly looked eagerly up at her, whining softly.

“Okay,” she said. “It wasn’t your fault. Come on, I’ll give you a feed.”

As she made for the barn, a frantic barking broke the tranquility, reminding her about the new dog, Floss. She opened the small door set into one of the two big barn doors and stepped inside, breathing in the sweet fragrance of hay. Here on the fells they still made small bales of traditional meadow hay—and always would do, as far as she was concerned. Sheep did best on meadow hay, and small bales were easy to handle.

“Hey, girl,” she called softly as the nervous young dog wriggled and squirmed on the end of her chain. Chrissie intended to bring her into the kitchen tonight, where the other dogs slept, but for now she was safest tied in the barn. She leaned down to rub the pup’s ears before unclipping her chain. The little black, white and tan Welsh collie raced around her.

Chrissie laughed, her unsuccessful day temporarily forgotten as Floss rolled over onto her back. “I hope you’re going to settle down a bit, or I’ll never be able to train you,” she said, scratching Floss’s tummy. She liked to spend time with new trainees, get them to trust her before proper training sessions began.

Tess and Fly flopped down in the hay, noses on their paws as they waited patiently, watching their mistress’s every move. “You were young once,” she told them. When she stood, Floss leaped up at her and she lowered her palm in a signal to sit.

“Down,” she said firmly. The little dog wagged her plumed tail and when she repeated the command, Floss did as she was bid.

“Well someone has certainly taught you something.” Chrissie reached into the feed bin for the bag of dog food. Tess and Fly jumped up and stood by their bowls, while Floss held back submissively.

The shadows were lengthening by the time Chrissie finished feeding the dogs and turned to her other animals.

With Floss on a long piece of twine, she fed and locked away the chickens and the Indian Runner ducks that she used in the sheepdogs’ early training. It was too early yet to test out Floss’s natural herding instincts, so she kept the young dog close and gave the command to sit on a regular basis.

The two shorthorn cows she kept for her own milk lowed hungrily, and she fed them before milking them in the old traditional way, enjoying the warm feel of their teats and the rhythmic sound of the milk squirting into a stainless steel bucket.

People around here thought she was as mad as a box of frogs to bother milking twice a day. “You could buy your milk from the shop,” Andy, her vet, had reminded her for the thousandth time just the other day. “It would be a darn sight cheaper and a lot less hassle.” Her response had been just to smile and shrug. The truth was she enjoyed it. The age-old task helped her relax.

And after her bad experience with the city dweller and his dog, she definitely needed to relax.

Remembering the poor, broken sheep, a flood of emotion overtook her. If Will Devlin thought he was getting away scot-free, then he could think again. Nothing could bring back the ewe or her unborn lamb, but he could pay for it. That was the least he could do.

Tomorrow, she decided, she’d get an early start and make the gather again. Once the flock was safely down on the lower pasture adjacent to the farm, she’d try to find out where the man was from. She stood, lifting the pail of milk and covering it with a cloth. In fact, she would write out a proper invoice as soon as she went inside. Perhaps she should take it with her in the morning, in case she saw him on the fell again, though surely he had learned his lesson there. Someone in the village must know where he was staying.

No matter what, she was determined to find him and make him pay.

CHAPTER FIVE

WILL DEVLIN ROLLED OVER in bed, breaking into a sweat as he woke in the darkness, horrible images flooding his mind. He sat up, flinging back his blankets. Would he never get a good night’s sleep again?

There was something heavy on his legs, pinning them down, and he made out Max’s pale shape in a beam of silvery moonlight. The big dog raised his head and flopped around, spread-eagling himself happily.

If anyone had told Will a year ago that he would be living alone in the country and sharing his bed with a dog, he’d have said it was impossible...and yet now here he was. Max slid off his legs and jumped onto the floor, instantly full of life. He was used to his master’s nighttime ramblings; sometimes they even went out for a walk in the darkness.

Tonight, though, Will felt too maudlin for a walk. Pulling on his dressing gown, he ran downstairs with Max at his heels, poured himself a stiff whisky and sat down beside the stove in the kitchen.

Had he been right to come here? Or was life in the Lake District just a crazy notion that he’d tire of soon? Remembering his disaster the previous day with the woman and her sheep, he realized he had an awful lot to learn if he was going to stay around here.

Max sat on his haunches, watching Will’s every move, his tail waving.

“Perhaps I should get you some proper training, Max,” Will said thoughtfully. “Assuming you’re even trainable...”

Max just looked at him, his brown eyes glowing with trust and happiness. That might have been what had drawn him to the pup in the first place, thought Will—the joyous innocence in his eyes. Innocence had kind of faded from Will’s life of late.

On the other hand, it had been Max’s innocence that caused the chaos on the fell today. Though Will doubted Chrissie would call the big dog “innocent” after what she thought he’d done to her sheep.

Taking another sip of his whisky, he pictured the straight-backed woman with her long blond braid. Chrissie. She didn’t really look like a Chrissie—more a Lorna or an Alice. A smile curled up inside him, warming the cold, hard place in his heart...

He shook his head. What did her name matter? In fact, the last woman he’d dated had been called Summer, and there wasn’t much about her that reminded him of the season—unless you counted how short-lived the relationship was. The shepherdess was no Summer, either. More of a Winter, he thought with a smirk. Remembering her honey-colored skin, though, he changed his mind to Autumn, with its golden tints and beautiful browns.

Summer had soon stopped getting in touch when he’d told her he’d given up his job and was moving to the country. He’d been put off at first, but now he was glad; he needed to be alone, for the time being, and he couldn’t see a future with her anyway.

Sighing, he dropped his empty glass into the sink and headed back up the narrow staircase. Tomorrow, he guessed, the architect would be on the phone. Will was so exhausted that it crossed his mind to put the whole project on hold, completely rethink the decisions he’d made recently.

He stood at the bedroom window, staring out at the formidable dark mass of the fell etched against the pale moonlit sky. This place held his future, he was sure of it. Fading dreams tumbled back into his consciousness, taking form again, meaning something. No, he couldn’t stop now. He needed this. Maybe he would have to rethink some of his plans so they would fit in with the environment here, but he wasn’t going to give up on the one thing that had carried him through these past dark weeks. Somehow he was going to make this work...no matter what the locals thought.

* * *

THE MORNING DAWNED bright and sunny, one of those early spring days when the whole world felt as if it was filled with promise. Is filled with promise, he corrected himself, feeling a resurgence of last night’s positive thinking. He glanced at the clock as he flung open the small window and leaned out to gulp in the sweet, clean air. There was a fog down in the valley, obliterating the rest of the view. Thick and white, it made the fells seem even more majestic as they loomed toward the clear blue sky.

“We are kings in our castle, Max,” Will said. “And when we are here, no one can touch us.”

Max just wagged his tail and twirled in a circle, impatient to go outside. Will smiled, feeling more lighthearted than he had in a long while. “Well, I’m a king... You’re probably more a court jester.”

He needed to get his head straight before meeting with his architect, so Will grabbed a piece of buttered toast and headed for the back door, remembering to take Max’s long leash from the hook. “No sheepherding for you today, young man,” he said, clipping the leash onto the dog’s collar.

The fog was lifting now, evaporating into nothingness to reveal the silver, sparkling lake and gray stone buildings way, way down in the valley. Will went through the gate that led onto the fell, noticing the patches of fresh white snowdrops coming up at the edges of the garden. They must have been there yesterday, announcing the arrival of spring, but he’d missed them. Funny how every day he seemed to see a new thing. It felt as if he’d just removed a blindfold that he’d been wearing for years, and now nature’s beauty was being revealed to him little by little.

Max pulled on the leash as they headed up the steep slope behind the house. He had decided not to go the same way as yesterday, just in case Chrissie—or Autumn, as he’d started thinking of her—was bringing the sheep down again. Today he wore sturdy boots, blue Wrangler jeans and a thick cream-colored sweater. Today, he was prepared; if he did come across her, she could keep her smiles to herself. He was dressed right and his dog was under control.

Will climbed for twenty minutes or so, not following a path but just aiming for the skyline and avoiding loose rocks and boulders.

He heard the high-pitched, ear-splitting sound from what felt like miles away, a piercing whistle that filled the clear air. Max stopped, whining in excitement, and Will took a firm hold of his leash. “Not today, boy,” he ordered, squinting into the distance.

No sign of her, thank God. The fellside was so vast that surely he couldn’t come across her by accident again. He continued on, his breath burning in his chest as the air got thinner.

* * *

CHRISSIE WAS PLEASED with herself. She’d been up before dawn to let Floss out, feed the animals and milk her two cows before grabbing her crook and calling to Tess and Fly. Perhaps today they could actually get the job done.

The heavy mist in the bottom of the valley made everything seem eerie and strange; Chrissie was used to mornings like this, but they never failed to move her soul. Taking a deep breath, she set out with long, easy strides, turning her face toward the pale early morning sun that cast its spell on the world.

By eight she was almost there, on the smoothest slope where the sheep liked to graze. To her relief she saw them at once, heads down and nibbling the sparse foliage. They looked up as one when she came into view, startled but not yet spooked by the woman and her dogs.

Today, she would have to take special care. Fell sheep were feral, they’d been badly frightened yesterday and their instinct to survive was strong. They moved closer together, herding up to face danger as a group, and she slowed her steps, motioning to Fly to go wide of the flock.

The sharp blue-and-white collie lowered herself to the ground, slinking around the back of the sheep that were starting to move down the slope. Tess waited, nose on paws, keen eyes and ears alert for her command.

Her moment came when a small ewe moved out from the flock. With one low whistle from Chrissie, Tess was straight on the sheep’s tail. Before she got close enough to truly spook it, Tess hung back, gently persuading the sheep to close in with the others. Chrissie felt a warm rush of pride at the way her dogs worked, hardly needing a command from her, and her confidence grew. Perhaps she’d actually manage to get these sheep down today.

For the next twenty minutes, they trotted almost amicably, content to be coaxed down the steep slope by the two easygoing dogs. And then the little ewe decided to make a break for freedom again and Chrissie let out a piercing whistle to warn Tess. Within minutes, the sheepdog had regained control and the flock streamed obediently toward the gate into the low pasture.

The sky was darkening, and Chrissie was relieved that they had almost reached the fields. Gray clouds descended, casting out the sun and obliterating the patches of clear blue. A slow, steady drizzle of rain enveloped the fell. Glad of the waxed-canvas jacket she wore, Chrissie pulled up her hood and kept on moving.

Rain was almost an everyday occurrence in the North of England and she gave it as little thought as the sheep, whose thick, oily fleeces glistened with raindrops. Still, poor visibility and high winds were risks up here and she was happy she hadn’t faced any more complications with the gather today.

The man appeared suddenly, as he had yesterday, and Chrissie suppressed a curse. At least today he had his crazy dog under control, she noted, and he was better dressed for the territory...except that maybe he should have thought to wear a coat.

She waved, signaling for him to stay back. He hesitated. His dark hair had curled in the rain and his sweater looked heavy and damp. He still hadn’t gotten it right, then, she thought, trying not to smile. What did he think he was doing hanging around these fells? She felt in her pocket for the bill; at least now she could give it to him.

“Meet me at the bottom,” she called, and he stopped in surprise. She pointed to the open gate that led to the fields by the farm. “Down there.”

He frowned, puzzled, but he began moving in that direction, hanging determinedly on to the leash as his dog strained against him, desperate for another bit of fun.

With a collie at either side running to and fro, and Chrissie behind the flock waving her crook, the sheep streamed through the gate. She pushed it shut with satisfaction, almost forgetting about Will. His deep voice behind her made her jump. “Why did you ask me to follow you down here...? Is it just so that you can give me another ticking off?”

“Ticking off?” she repeated, unable to stop her wide smile. “What kind of person says that? Reading the riot act, going mad, even telling off. Ticking off sounds, well, kind of private school, I guess. Posh. Come to think of it, you do sound a bit posh.”

Will nodded briefly. “And you sound very Northern. Anyway, why did you ask me to follow you? I know, don’t tell me—it was my good looks you couldn’t resist.”

A flicker of heat in Chrissie’s cheeks revealed her embarrassment; she wasn’t used to eloquent men out-talking her. In fact, talking to anyone was not her forte. She pulled a slip of paper from her pocket. “You owe me this...for the ewe.”

He frowned, his silvery blue eyes darkening. “But it ran off...we both saw it. I helped you, and it was fine.”

“Not that one.”

“There was another?”

She looked anywhere but into his piercing gaze. “One fell down a cliff face...it’s dead and so is its lamb.”

He stepped forward and took hold of her arm, but she pulled it away. “I’m so sorry.”

Chrissie met his eyes for a second, lifting her chin. “Sheep die up here. It happens. But you have to pay for this one.”

Will studied the crumpled piece of paper in his hand. “That much?”

“That much,” she repeated decisively.

He stared at her a moment longer then sighed. “I presume this is where you live,” he said. “High Bracken, you called it? I’ll bring you a check. You do take checks, I suppose?”

Chrissie glared at him. “Yes, can you believe it? I actually have a bank, in fact.” Suddenly she smiled again, a tiny smile that just turned up the corners of her mouth. “I even have the internet...and I can work it.”

It was his turn to appear uncomfortable. “I didn’t mean...”

“Yes, you did,” she said. “You think I’m some kind of country bumpkin with no brains. Well, I am a country girl and I’m proud of it, but I do have brains. It was either sheep farming or training to be a vet, and I chose sheep farming. I’ve never regretted it. I’ll be around the farm tomorrow if you want to drop the check off. The vet’s coming.”

She turned away with her dogs at her heels, but spun back to face him a second later. “Oh, and you certainly look a bit more in keeping with your surroundings today, but a coat is always a good idea around here.”

She strode off without another word. There was something so arrogant about the man, with his high-handed manner and his posh accent, and yet, standing there in his wet sweater, he also seemed kind of vulnerable. Bottom line: he was just another tourist and the sooner he headed back to his city life, the better.

She remembered what he’d said about owning property, but it had to be a just vacation home. Men like Will Devlin didn’t live around here; they just arrived with their families and interfered with the way of things before scuttling back to the city.

Did he have a family? she wondered. Did she really care? The answer that jumped into her head was not the one she wanted. For some bizarre reason, she was interested in the man who kept appearing on the fell as if from nowhere. Perhaps he was a ghost, she mused sardonically as she made her way down to the farm. Well, I’ll find out tomorrow, she thought. Because ghosts can’t write checks.

* * *

WHEN CHRISSIE REACHED High Bracken, the sheep safely enclosed in the low meadows, she made straight for the new arrival, Floss. The nervous little dog was excited to see her, and Chrissie played with her for a few minutes before leading her to the house.

The way Floss stayed close behind her told her that perhaps she would be one of the easier ones to train. That belief was strengthened when Chrissie stopped to gaze across the valley toward Craig Side and Floss sat obediently down beside her.