ELEMENTS: Acquiesce by Kathryn Andrews (snow like ashes series .TXT) 📕

Cordelia didn’t say anything. Her expression told Breck she wasn’t okay.

“Come on, the tide’s coming in. Let’s get off these rocks.”

Cordelia and Breck walked in silence to the peat bog where they joined Keeva in the shelter.

“Cordelia, Keeva, Keeva, Cordelia,” said Breck.

Cordelia smiled and held out her hand to the blonde girl sitting before her with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Keeva looked Cordelia up and down like she was something the cat had dragged in.

“The front of your skirt is missing,” she said coldly.

Cordelia retracted her hand. “You’re observant.”

Cordelia noticed the small fire burning in the hut. “That’s impressive. How did you manage that with wet turf?”

Breck smiled. “I have my ways.”

“What’s the weather doing, Breck?” asked Keeva.

Breck glanced out of the shelter towards the town. “Looks like it’s in for the afternoon.”

“Shall we go then? No point in staying here.”

Breck looked at Cordelia apologetically. “I’ll take her home and then I’ll come back.” He stepped out of the shelter to prepare the horse.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” said Keeva, eyes focused on Breck. “He’s not rich you know. He’s nothing to offer you.”

Cordelia was surprised by Keeva’s words. “You’ll be pleased to know I’m not after his money.”

“Stay away from him.”

“Are you ready?” asked Breck.

Keeva smiled and made her way to the horse and cart.

“I’ll be back soon,” called Breck.

Cordelia watched as the cart pulled away to the sound of a funeral bell tolling in the distance.

“Not again,” sighed Keeva. “If I never hear those bells again it’ll be too soon.”

They rode through the bleak town past desperate families who’d fallen to their knees in their front gardens, crying because their crops were diseased, crying because their children wouldn’t stop wailing from hunger and fever. They rode in silence, until they came to the church where a mass burial was taking place. The crying was too much to bare. Painfully thin, skeletal people were begging for money so they could bury their children in coffins rather than let them succumb to the jaws of dogs and rats. Breck stopped the cart.

“Why are we stopping?” asked Keeva.

“It’s Jerry.”

Breck jumped down from the cart and made his way through the crowd. Jerry was on his knees in the churchyard holding his wife and child in his arms.

“It’s too shallow!” cried Jerry. “Please, I beg you, help me buy them a coffin.”

Sickened by what he saw, Breck knelt beside Jerry and whispered in his ear. Then he carried Jerry’s wife to his cart. Jerry followed behind, carrying his child through the crowd. People shuffled out of the way, their faces somber. Some removed their hats while others simply stared as Breck lay the bodies upon the turf.

“What’s wrong with you?!” hissed Keeva. “Do you want to catch whatever disease they died from?”

“Have you no compassion?” asked Breck. “Get down, you can walk from here.”

Keeva’s mouth fell open.

“You’ll want to close that Keeva. You might catch something.”

Keeva pouted, her nostrils flaring.

“Go and tell your father the news,” said Breck. Ask him to have a ginger ale waiting.”

Jerry and Breck rode to the peat bog in the dreary rain, the wheels of the wagon splashing up mud each time they hit a pothole.

“God bless you,” Jerry eventually said. They were the only words he could muster.

Breck acknowledged Jerry with a half smile and then focused his eyes on the track ahead.

Cordelia heard the horse and cart coming along the track. She rushed out to meet Breck, but her wide smile soon faded when she realised who was with him. She could see it was Jerry, but he looked so different to when she last saw him a few weeks ago. Cordelia knew he didn’t have Flynn supplying fish but she didn’t realise how desperate things had become. She’d had too many other things on her mind. He looked like a small child, a shadow of his former self. Then she noticed the bodies resting on top of the cart, the colour from their faces drained away, arms and legs as thin as sticks. Her nostrils flared at the putrid stench of death. Her eyes watered and her stomach heaved. Consumed with guilt for neglecting someone who’d been a regular feature in her life, for not giving him so much as a thought since the storm, Cordelia burst into tears.

She knelt beside Jerry and hugged him. “I’m sorry.”

The pair of them sat together in the rain, silently watching Breck dig a grave in the bog. When the grave was deep enough, Breck lowered the two bodies into the ground and began to cover them over. Jerry’s chin wobbled uncontrollably as he caught the last glimpse of his loved ones before they disappeared beneath the turf.

“Goodbye,” he called out, his voice shaking.

Cordelia was so overcome with grief that she could feel her heart breaking all over again. Aquamarine tears fell to the ground. Cordelia quickly pushed them into the turf and wiped her eyes as Breck began to say the Lord’s Prayer.

“Our Father…”

Jerry joined in, “who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name…”

Cordelia was too emotional to speak. Even if she’d tried, the words wouldn’t come out. With all the events that day, she thought she was going mad. She longed for normality in her life, but if she was honest with herself, she knew things would never be normal again, not in the way she knew normal to be. When they’d finished the Lord’s Prayer, Jerry stood up, squeezed Cordelia’s shoulder affectionately and shook Breck’s hand before walking away.

“Can I give you a ride?” called Breck.

“Nah, you’re alright,” called Jerry, “the walk will do me good.”

“Stop by the tavern, there’ll be a ginger ale waitin’ for you.”

Standing in the rain, Breck wrapped his strong arms around Cordelia and held her tight. She could smell the sweat on his shirt but she didn’t mind. As they stood in the bog watching the tiny man walk