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"Could you do this with the other two e line, in fact, with the pure bay h it hadn’t been a disaster, it hadn’t been pretty, either Surely I wouldn’t have wanted Holly or anyone else with me in the round pen that day I’m not entirely certain that six years with either of the mares would end up the same way that six years with Corr has I’m not sure, after all this time, if it’s because he understands me better than they do, or ht you this? Surely not Malvern" Holly glances at me

In that brief moment of distraction, the bare second it takes for Holly to look toward es away from the wall toward us Swift and soundless

I don’t wait for Holly to react I snatch the stick fro the tip of the stick into his shoulder Corr rises up, away from the pressure of it, but I follow hiainst his cheek, daring hiaround

Holly lifts his eyebrows He hands e line and wipes his palms on his slacks "First time behind the wheel At least I didn’t wrap her around a tree"

He’s not at all fazed

"Welco Gratton leaves, Finn and I pack up to go into Skarain denied the proud, lonely entrance on Dove, but we need to bring all of the teapots into town and the Morris won’t start So in theturn of events so far, I have to hitch Dove up to our little cart My future embarrass up the pottery

I have a sudden thought "How are you going to get the cart back ho the boxes in the cart so the cornerslooks like he is laying bricks, but it’s taking hio on the botto to crash around "I’ down there"

"I’ll bring it back ers on the edge of a box in order to move it the distance of a butterfly’s breath

"Yourself?"

"Sure," Finn says "It’ll be e out of Skariant sweater, and I wish that I, too, could disappear to the et to the beach after the tide has co to brighten, re

"Maybe Dory will let us leave it behind the shop," I say "I’ll pick it back up with Dove when I’er, which makes her stamp her back hoof like he’s a fly He says, "Dove says she doesn’t want to pull a cart after you make her run away from seaa pony cart"

He suely at his stack of pottery boxes "I don’t reement by the tio,behind Puffin the cat follows us for a while, with Finn shooing at her, which onlyto join uslike rotten lances The island is no stranger to terrible sreat fish onto the beaches to rot, fishers the s -- but this is not a sea s’s died that shouldn’t have and has been left where it shouldn’t have been left I don’t want to stop, but it could be a person, so I make Finn stand by Dove’s head as I climb up over the stone wall in the direction of the scent

The wind is coh theit out of the way -- and I crumple over myself to stay war that I could have sent Finn to investigate the smell, but he’s queasy and useless with blood So I am the lucky one to discover the source, which is a pile of parts that used to be a sheep There’s not much left but hooves, a bob of its short tail, a lump of its innards, which is what sled and crushed around the eye socket What’s left of the wool at the back of the neck is spray-painted blue, to mark it as one of Hammond’s flock There isn’t h My skin prickles with an autoh I doubt that the capall uisce responsible is anywhere near Still -- this is far inland for one of the horses to coa Dove on the upper lip and Dove looking peevish Finn looks up and I say, "Sheep"

He says, "I kneas a sheep"

I reply, "Next ti eye into the pasture before I walk through the ain toward Skarmouth

We’re headed to Dory Maud’s shop, which is called Fathoine, as Dory has no sons and no husband for that matter She lives with her two sisters, neither of whos year-round to sell to tourists during October and Nove I noticed about Dory was that she was alearing a different pair of shoes, a strange and extravagant thing on the island Now mostly what I notice about her is that she and her sisters have no last na just about anywhere

Fathom & Sons is down one of the little side streets in Skarh for Dove and her pony cart Neither the mist nor the sun can reach inside this alley, and we shiver as Dove’s hoofsteps clatter and echo up the sides of the buildings

Standing in the blue- pieces of biscuit at a collie Both Carroll brothers have dark, curly hair, but one of theh for a brain and the other has a lus Once, when I cah for lungs, crouched by the quay, shaking and starving for air Mum had told hiethim while she went to buy him a black coffee I’d been very annoyed, because she’d promised me one of Palsson’s cinnamon twists, which sold out very quickly I’m a bit ashamed to recall that I told Brian that if he died and kept rave I don’t know if he re through a cup made of his hands I hope he doesn’t, because my character’s iht the spitting part instead of saying it to his face