Oisín McGann - Ancient Appetites

Ignoring Cathy's whispered protests, he climbed out and pressed himself down against the slates.

'Come on!' he hissed impatiently.

She struggled clumsily through the hole and let out a moan of terror as she looked down at the ground, four storeys below.

'Don't make a bloody sound!' he warned her.

They heard the muffled voices of Slattery and his men through the floor of the attic. Shay looked around frantically for some way off the roof, but there was nothing. He heard the attic hatch being opened and quickly laid his body across the hole to block out the light inside. Every move he made seemed to cause the loose slates to shift, and he closed his eyes and lay still. A light was held up into the attic, he could see it shine through the gaps on either side of his body. He could hear Cathy's teeth chattering and his own heart beating like a drum.

The light disappeared and he took a deep breath before daring to peek inside.

'They're gone,' he said at last. 'But they might have left someone behind down below to wait for us to come back. We'll give it a while and then come down by one of the other hatches.'

'Séamas Noonan, you tell me what's going on this instant or I swear to Almighty God-'

'All right, all right, woman!' he rasped, covering her mouth in exasperation. 'Keep yer voice down! Me 'n' Francie stole somethin' from the Wildensterns, and I fenced it through Duffy in town. That's how I paid off what we owed on the rent. But Slattery must have got to Duffy, 'cos now he's on our trail. And because of what we stole, he thinks we were in on the explosion at the funeral, all right? If we're caught, we're dead. It's as simple as that.'

Cathy stared at him, aghast. For a minute she seemed lost for words – a rare event indeed. Leaning back against the slate slope, her feet flat against the tiles, she gazed out on the roofs of Dublin around them. It was a clear night and she could see as far as the river; she had never seen her city from this angle before and it was a beautiful sight. The air was clearer too this evening. There was less of the gritty smog that thousands of coalfires and factory smokestacks churned into the sky each day. She looked on her city with new eyes.

'And what about Francis?' she asked at last. 'He's still at the house, isn't he? How long before they figure out who he is and sling him into Kilmainham Gaol for the rest of his life?'

'None of us will live to see gaol if we're caught,' Shay muttered. 'But we've got to warn Francie. He's supposed to be doin' a job for me tonight. It was goin' to set us up for life, Cathy. But we'd have to leave the country. I had our escape planned – I've got a boat set to take us to England and everything; you, me, Francie and the girls. It's all sorted. But we've got to hide up now until it's ready to leave and we've got to get Francie out of that house-'

'I don't want to go to England!' Cathy exclaimed, close to tears.

'Keep yer voice down, for God's sake! They could hear us!'

'We can't just pick up and leave like that! I can't… This… This is the last straw, Séamas; I've had enough of living with you and yer sins. Yeh'll go up to that house and get Francie out before they realize his part in this. I've prayed for yer soul every night since our marriage, but the devil can have it now for all I care, yeh miserable guttersnipe yeh!' Her face creased into a mask of rage as she grabbed his collar. 'But yeh're not takin' our little boy with yeh! I want you to pray for him now, Shay. Pray for all yeh're worth!'

'Get yer hands off me, I'm not prayin' for nothin'!'

Cathy smacked him hard across the face, nearly knocking him loose from his perch. He scrabbled for a grip on the tiles, sliding down before he caught himself. Staring in shock at his wife, he opened his mouth to curse her name but she slapped him again.

'Yeh'll pray, Séamas Noonan, or I'll knock us both off this roof!'

With disbelief written all over his face, Shay gaped at his wife. He had never seen her like this, but the look in her eyes convinced him she was serious. Bowing his head, he closed his eyes, and Cathy glared at him for a minute longer before joining him. And clinging there to that slate roof, they prayed for the life of their son.

Most of the stable boys went to bed not long after nightfall. Their work was hard and they had to rise early in the morning, so only the die-hards stayed up that night to play cards around the top of a crate by the light of a candle. Francie played until the last hand, and then waited impatiently for the others to go to bed. He said he was going out for a walk; it was forbidden by Old Hennessy, but most of the lads did it now and then. It was almost time to pull off the job of his life, but he needed the others to be asleep before he set about it.

He made his way down to the stables, slipping quietly through the door and stroking the noses of some of the horses, which whickered softly when they caught his smell. He liked being here, just standing among the animals when he had no work to do. It gave him a sense of peace. Walking slowly down past the stalls, he came to Flash's door. He let himself in and crouched down by the engimal's front wheel, running his hand over its front legs. It leaned against his hand, enjoying the contact. There was no reticence now; they had become friends at last.

'Tonight's goin' to be a big night for you 'n' me,' Francie whispered to it. 'Life's about to change for the both of us.'

At that moment he heard a noise at the end of the stables. Pressing himself up against the low wall that looked out onto the stable, he pushed the engimal away from him and held his breath. There came the sound of footsteps, and the flickering light of a candle passed the stall and carried on down towards the other end of the building. There had been no sound of the stable door opening. It must be the mysterious gentleman again. Francie was about to come out of hiding when he heard more footsteps. He ducked back down again and peered through a gap between the boards. His eyes had adjusted to the bad light and he saw that it was a short, slender man in ill-fitting clothes. Francie got a brief look at his face but didn't recognize him. The stranger had come from the same end of the building, but was not carrying a light. Francie wondered if he was following the first person.

But where had they come in?

When he was sure the stranger was gone, he darted out through the door and crept down to the end of the stables. They had not come in by the big double doors; he was sure of it. Somehow, they were getting into the stables at the house end and sneaking through to go out of the side door, which couldn't be seen from the house.

He turned to look at the wall to his left and was just in time to see a section of it swinging shut. Lunging forward, he stuck his foot in the gap and held the door open. The stones on the front of the door were real, but it was balanced so perfectly it swung easily, and with hardly any sound at all. Pushing one of the smaller stones operated a latch, and he closed the door and opened it again. When it was closed, its shape was hidden amongst the stones of the wall. He marvelled at the clever engineering. Peering inside, he saw there was a stack of candles just inside the door, and a box of matches. A stone-walled passage disappeared into the darkness beyond.

Francie was itching to explore it, but there was no point. It was a pity that this was to be his last day in Wildenstern Hall. He would have loved to follow the passage and see where it went; he wondered what secrets he could uncover. But he had a job to do and this wasn't it. He swung the door shut and heard the latch click home. He would wait a little while longer to give the lads upstairs time to fall asleep, and then he'd make a start.