The Tale of Sawney Bean (Complete Novella) (3 page)

I went to my
bag and quickly found the sandwiches before returning to her. She
had sat next to the fire that was barely lit and I wondered if she
was cold or just trying to get some light. There was no real way to
tell what time it was in the cave but I could still hear the sound
of the waves washing in and out of the cave mouth so I knew the
tide was still high meaning it was night time.

I passed her a
sandwich and sat across from her and got the fire burning again.
There was firewood everywhere in the cave. It must have been debris
washed into the cave a long time ago when the tides were higher
because it was all bone dry and I didn’t think the waves came up
into the cavern these days but I didn’t know for sure. It was one
of my concerns but I doubted it was likely to happen.

“I haven’t had
jam since my parents were alive” Sarah said.

“Why did you
end up living with your aunt and uncle?” I asked.

“My mum and dad
were murdered coming back from Edinburgh. The highwaymen cut both
their throats to steal the little belongings they had. I had
already been staying with my aunt and uncle while my parents were
away. They were always nice to me before my parents died.”

I didn’t know
whether to continue asking questions while Sarah was talking or if
that was enough for today but then she continued.

“My uncle, he
did things to me.”

Sarah had said
enough with that one statement. I had already suspected that’s what
had happened but I think she just wanted to say it aloud. To
justify her actions that morning and why we were here.

“Thankyou” she
said quietly.

“For what?” I
asked her.

“For coming
with me, I don’t have any friends and I didn’t want to go by
myself. I think being with you over the last two days somehow made
up my mind of what I had to do but I hoped you would come with
me.”

“But I barely
said ten words to you” I added thinking how could I possibly have
influenced your decision and wondering if this meant I was in
someway guilty of your aunt and uncles death before deciding I
wouldn’t much care if I was.

“I know you
didn’t but there’s something between us. Can’t you feel it?”

I knew exactly
what she meant but was surprised to hear the words coming out of
her mouth. I still didn’t really know what this meant for us but
knowing that she had felt something too made my heart swell.

“Yes.” Was all
I could think to reply, there was so much I’d have liked to have
said but I couldn’t find the words.

The fire was
burning brighter now and I was sure I had seen her do one of those
little almost smiles, where it just touches the edge of her lips
but she said no more. She crawled over to my side, gave me the
softest kiss on the cheek and lay down with her head on my lap. I
could still feel that kiss lingering on my cheek long after she had
drifted to sleep. I wasn’t sure what life had in store for us or
how long we even had left but I knew right then that I would do my
utmost to spend as much of that time with her as possible.

Chapter 8

Over the next
few days not an awful lot changed. Initially the plan was to move
on but after Sarah seen that no one came near here she had decided
we should stay for a while. The main problem we faced was finding
food. Neither of us could fish and the part of the beach we were at
would have probably been useless and not only that but we didn’t
really want to be standing around in plain sight even if there was
a minimal risk of being seen.

Sarah had told
me her dad taught her how to hunt, trap and prepare meat but again
we couldn’t just go back and forth to the woods. We didn’t even
know if her aunt and uncles bodies had been found. Our tummies
grumbled and we knew that food was our main priority.

Knowing no one
was looking for me I had went out to collect some supplies after
only one day in hiding but I couldn’t risk carrying too much in
case I looked suspicious. I had gone home to grab some clothes for
myself and no one had even noticed I hadn’t come home the night
before. I filled a bag with the meagre supplies I could find from
the cupboards. It wasn’t much but it would have to do. I found a
few candles and packed some clothes. On the way back to the cave I
managed to steal a few items of clothes from old Mrs Smiths house.
I knew she worked in the bakery all day and her daughter although
younger than Sarah was about the same size.

I arrived back
at the cave and although I thought to myself it wasn’t much you
seemed to be delighted by what I had brought. The blanket would
mean we didn’t have to lie on the cold stone floor and at least we
had a little food. We were both able to change out of our dirty
clothes as well. Sarah went into one of the caves at the other end
of the cavern and came back in one of the two dresses I had managed
to get her. It was a light yellow summer dress that probably wasn’t
ideal for sitting around in a cave but beggars can’t be
choosers.

“I love it!”
Sarah said doing a quick twirl.

I felt proud to
be able to be the man to provide her with a new dress even if it
was stolen. She approached me and gave me another light kiss on the
cheek before going to the bag and looking through it. I noticed she
had brushed her hair using Mrs Smith’s brush I had also stolen. She
actually looked the best she had since I met her and that was after
sleeping rough in a cave. It gave me some idea of the extent of
torment she had been living through before this.

We sat that
night at the cave entrance again looking out over the rocks below
to the sea and watching the sun go down. Sarah snaked her arm
around my back and snuggled in against me. I felt her warmth spread
through my body and cuddled her into me.

“Don’t leave
me” she whispered in my ear squeezing me tighter.

“I wont.” I
whispered back, holding her tight.

Chapter 9

The next
morning when I woke Sarah was gone again. I doubted she would be
far away or take long to return so I set about getting our fire
going again. It was warm enough in the cavern through the day but
there was no light so we still needed the fire. The tunnel to the
cavern lead up the way from the cave wall so the light didn’t even
shine down into it, without the fire it was total darkness.

I sat for a
while waiting then decided after calling out a few times to walk
down to the cave mouth. I found Sarah staring out to sea with her
arms wrapped around her knees. As I approached her, before I had
said a word she asked “Do you want babies?”

“What?“ I asked
in return.

“Babies, do you
want them?”

“I’ve never
really thought about it” I had to admit.

“I do. I want a
big family. I’ve always wanted a big family. I was an only child
and always wished I had lots of brothers and sisters to play with
but I always thought I would have lots of children and
grandchildren. Do you think we will still be able to?”

We, I thought
to myself. She meant us. She wanted us to have a family. I was a
little taken aback. We hadn’t even known each other a few days ago.
Sure, we were now on the run because Sarah had murdered her aunt
and uncle and I had already decided to give up my old life for her
but babies were a whole other thing. I couldn’t help but smile at
the fact that she wanted us to have babies together though as crazy
as it seemed.

Sarah was quiet
after telling me her wants and I wasn’t sure if she was waiting for
me to say something or had just finished speaking. I thought to
myself about how we would raise a baby and where we would go.

“We would need
to get somewhere to live first and I will need to find work.”

She turned her
neck to look at me and for the first time I got to see her face
with a smile on it.

“That means
yes.” She said, sounding like a little girl, one side of her mouth
turning into a grin. She jumped up and run over and hugged me.

I wasn’t sure
that I had agreed and hoped she meant a few years into the future
but seeing her this happy made me feel like I’d never felt before.
Here was a girl who never smiled and I seemed to be able to bring
some happiness to her life even if only briefly. I hoped with more
time I could give her some kind of normality but everything had
happened so fast and I was unprepared and for now thought I would
just have to take everything a day at a time.

No one was
likely to let two kids rent a house and I wouldn’t be able to get a
job that paid enough to keeps us. I didn’t like the idea of being a
thief but for the time being our cave seemed to be our only option
but it posed problems. I could only really go out to steal whatever
we needed after dark but this only gave us a brief window because
we had to be back in before the sea level rose too high.

I had a lot to
think about. But in the early days our survival and setting up a
sustainable living arrangement had been our main priority.

Chapter
10

The next few
months got easier the longer we stayed. We learned the times of the
sea closing us in and then going away again in the morning. We
explored the caves together. They went on for miles, twisting and
turning, some going up and some going down but my grandfather had
been right, it was just more cave. We did find a few different
sources of water though that came in useful and we still had
Sarah’s canteen to fill up.

Outside the
cave I learned a few more tricks on how to get food and clothes for
us and as time passed by our home filled up like any other new
couples with things we needed. Admittedly it was stuff we had
stolen or mainly I had stolen as Sarah rarely left the cave but how
else would we have survived. A man has to look after his family and
Sarah was my family now.

Sarah’s mood
changed a lot and it was hard to judge how she was going to be on
any given day. Sometimes we would spend days together where we
could have been any other happy couple on holiday together or at
the funfair. We would laugh and joke and talk about the future and
about what paths our life may take. Other days it was as if she
wasn’t even in the cave with me. She would stare into space and be
almost unresponsive to me. I’d try talking to her but she would
give me one word answers. I knew these were the days when she was
thinking about her past but I had never seen someone’s character
change so completely. It was almost like living with two different
people but I loved her no less. I just lived for the good days when
we could talk and laugh and even kiss.

We had spoken
about having babies and a family but we had never done more than a
kiss on the lips. We were young and life had given us other things
to think about but as time passed by I found myself wanting more
and more to get even closer to you. We now had a pretty good set up
where we rarely wanted for much but I did worry about if we would
find life as easy having a young child to care for. I worried what
would happen if the child got unwell and we couldn’t take it to the
doctors and what would happen if I couldn’t deliver the baby when
you went into labour. It wasn’t quite as easy as just having a baby
but you were talking about it more and more.

Our thirteenth
birthdays had came and gone with no celebration and Sarah had
started to bleed. It was information she had shared with me on a
good day with a smile on her face. It should have been embarrassing
for her but it was her way of saying ‘I’m ready. We can try
now’.

I still worried
if it was the right thing to do but it did seem to be the only
thing Sarah wanted or ever asked for on both her good and bad days.
I didn’t know whether Sarah’s life would get easier with time, with
the memories fading and the horrors being forgotten but I knew if
we had a little baby that she would shower it with love. I knew I
wanted to have a family with Sarah but our situation was far from
perfect. The more I thought about the families in town though I
wondered if anyone’s situation is really all that perfect.

Chapter
11

The longer we
were in the cave the more it started to feel more like home. We had
both had better home lives when we were younger but they had been a
long time ago. Sarah was always doing little things to make the
cave feel more homely. We had candles everywhere now providing us
with a good bit of light and a section of the cavern floor was now
covered by shawls and other materials creating a comfy area for
relaxing and sleeping. We had got into a little routine where I
would go out to steal whatever we needed and she would keep our
cave clean and tidy, getting rid of any food scraps and washing our
pots n pans. I became adapt at sneaking around town unseen and
Sarah didn’t even need to leave the cave. She had found one of the
caves leading off from the far wall took her deeper into the cliff
and eventually you came to a massive drop off. From the sound when
you threw something off the end the drop was hundreds of feet so
that’s where we had taking to discarding anything we didn’t need,
knowing it was far enough down that we wouldn’t need to be worried
about being surrounded by rotting food. She would wash everything
in one of the little internal waterfalls.

Our new home
really was everything we could have ever needed. Living of the out
of town suited us both, neither of us having much time for other
people. I had noticed Sarah went to the cave mouth less often and I
knew she hadn’t left the cave since we got here. She felt safe and
protected being up high, deep in the cliff face where no one knew.
Some days I would ask her to come down to the entrance and sit with
me for a while and sometimes she would and other days she didn’t
want to leave the cavern.