Angelus' Last Childe

Not a star shone down on the earth that night, not a thing could be seen 'part from when the moon's light penetrated though the hovered clouds.

It wasn't much standing there in solitary confinement at the base of the hill staring up at the shinning lights of the houses deposited in clusters, huddling in their groups, laughing and smiling together, never once looking from their cosy dwellings to the home of me and my family.

We were outsiders, but we were happy. Our house was big and it was old, it had belonged to my Father's Father's Father. He had built it himself, brick by brick it was a labour he lived for, to build a home for himself, his wife and children. A place which could be passed down through the generations.

And so it had survived. To give warmth and shelter to me and my sisters and brother who were of the fourth generation to have lived in it.

My name is Elizabeth Bann, but everyone calls me Betsy. I am the oldest of Five and celebrated my 19th birthday the day my tale begins.

My mother died when I was 16, she was buried in the churchyard of St Patrick's Chapel. The Chapel lay at the other side of the village to our home.

That day stays clear in my mind, painful as it was, with every step closer it felt like another dagger penetrated my heart.

My father was as cold as ice and as stern as steel that day, nothing like the cheerful happy father whom I had grown up with. Not one tear fell from his eye as they lowered my mother's casket into the ground, though he had wept in torrents the day she died, she had suffered for a long time and we had all been glad when it was over, it meant an end to the pain which had replaced the sparkle in her silver grey eyes.

But now to the world he was dead, his heart left him and with my mother, and it was not a year later that we returned him to the ground, he died because he was lost without her, he was happy when he died, happy when he was to be reunited with her and I was left alone, I couldn't be mad with him though for leaving us, how can you be mad with someone for loving a person so much that it devours them, that was how he felt about my mother and it killed him.

We had no one to help us, not family of any kind, my mother's brothers had died in the rebellion, and my father's sister had emigrated to the America's ten years previous and we had had no contact from her since.

So it was left to me to care for my younger sisters' and brother.

Mary was the eldest next to me, there was only a year, which separated us, and we were as close as sisters could be. Where I looked like my father with my coperish hair and brilliant blue eyes, she was almost a total replica of my ma, her hair was the colour of a cornfield in the end of summer just before the harvest when it is ready to be picked, her eyes were sapphires glittering and when ever she looked at you, she focused her whole attention on you, and made you feel almost as if you were the only person in the world, as if you were the centre of her universe and anything which you were going to say was going change anything and everything and so she needed to listen to you. She was petite, with a tiny waist, and always favoured dove grey dresses, he voice was soft and gentle, much like her, if you a problem you could turn to her an with a simple hug she could solve everything. She smelled like rain, it sounds so stupid, I know to say that someone smells like rain, but she did she smelt like the air does on a spring morning after a shower and she was beautiful. She was my confident whom I could turn to about anything and everything, and I loved her with all my heart.

She had plans to be a teacher, so when the time came the following year to send her away to a school which had given her a commission in country Tyrone, she was to have her own small school and teachers house, she was to be well taken cared of, and planned to send us money back each month to help us by.

All was going well with her for the first 6 months until she came down with tuberculoses and was sent home to die, and to her credit she didn't linger long dying within a week of returning home, not wanting to live in agony, or to squander our limited resources.

And so another Bann was returned to the earth from whence they had come, I mourned for the loss of my Mary for longer than I did for either my ma or pa.

But life went on and I was left to provide for the three other hungry mouths, not including my own, after my sister Mary had come Esther who was 13 then Bronnie who was 9 followed finally by Thomas who was barely 5.

I took to looking for a job which could support me and my small family, not able to leave home to work as a governess or teacher I took the only other job available to a girl in my position without forgetting those morals which my mother had impaled upon me at a young age and so I trained with the local midwife and became her assistant.

Lucy was kind to me, she understood what it was like to be orphaned and left to bring up young ones, as she had had to bring up her sister alone too.

I followed through with my training and found that I had quite a talent concerning Midwifery.

In the two years, which I practiced with Lucy, we lost no mother's and no children and so became quite well known within the local community.

I had first seen him one night in the early hours of the morning; Lucy and I had been called out to help Hayley Mc'na to give birth, both mother and child made if through the labour without a problem and if truth be told there had been no real need for us to present but Hayley had been nervous about her first birth.

I pulled my emerald green woollen cloak tighter around me as I walked home, it was a icy cold night and it was dangerous for anyone to be out wandering the streets at night, as there had been rumours although the valley's of devil's who wore human face's like a mask wandering the streets waiting to kill the innocent.

Hayley's husband Patrick had offered me a place to stay for the rest of the night but I had refused his kind offer, Thomas was nervous whenever I left home for the night, as was Bronnie, they didn't like to be left alone.

That had been the only reason why I had declined Patrick's offer. I was paying for it then though, I could feel my hear beating in my chest like the rhythm if the drums which played the St Patrick's Keel.

My eyes kept darting from side to side as I walked through the deserted streets. It was strange to see the main streets like this; in the daytime they were normally a hive of activity. I kept seeing images of things moving in the shadows, and would throw my hands out to the front or the dies of me if the images got to close, but all they found was nothing, there was nothing in the road with me. I once met a man who told me what hell was; it was nothing, nothing but emptiness for all eternity.

I was just getting to the outskirts of the town when I saw him, a lone solitary figure like myself, he was tall and well built, his dark hair was covered with a tall had and his clothes were well made.

He looked like my father had looked on the day of my mother's funeral and for one fleeting moment I almost thought it was he, but this man was a good couple of inches taller than my father and more built up in his arms and shoulders.

I thought back to a story my ma had told me when I was younger, about a woman who had met death embodied, on the lone dark road of life, I had never understood that image until now nit in this moment to me this man looked like death. How ironic that thought turned out to be.

His eyes were fixed on the road ahead. But a small smile graced his lips when he saw me. I looked down to the floor and pulled my cloak tighter around me, to comfort my nervous limbs.

I meant to walk past him without stopping, my whole body willed me to do just that and walk past him without stopping.

My hand in which I clutched my worn out brown leather bag containing my midwifery kit was shaking, it was almost fit like in the extent to which my hand shock as if all the nerves in my body had somehow in that moment since I had first seen him appearing in the road emigrated to my hand and were now going to have their way.

We drew closer to each other as we progressed down the road, neither of us braking pace nor slowing down; he was about three foot away from me when my nerve broke and I emitted a little squeal as the bag slid from my hand.

I bent down to pick up the traitorous bag, the shaking which had started in my hand had taken over my body now, matching my accelerated heart beat in it's explosion like beating.

As my hand reached out to the bag, through the loose strands of my fiery hair I saw another hand reaching for and collecting my bag.

I looked up and was suddenly engulfed by the most perfect eyes I had ever seen, I was drowning in the deepness of his gaze, in them I could see wisdom and age along side light heartedness and humour but the main element in them which sang out to me was freedom, I could tell from his look that he was willing to offer me more than the arm which extended to me, he was offering me a chance to escape from my life.

I saw another smile grace his features but this time I was close enough to view the true perfection which was his smile, his eyes shone with such clarity and I felt as if he was smiling directly into my soul.

I still had not taken his arm when he shifted my bag in his arm and opened his mouth to speak.

"Forgive me, me darling," an Irish lilt appearing in his voice but there were traces of so many accents in it that it was impossible to tell from just his voice what part of Ireland he was from. He carried on, "But if I may ask, what is a young girl such as yourself doing wandering the streets at this time of the night, surely you must no that no one is safe while the devil's walk the streets."

I smiled back up at him, "I walk these streets alone on many a nights sir, and I am not afraid of the devil's God protects his faithful children."

He smiled back at me and said "Indeed he does. By the way lass what is your name? Forgive me for not asking before now."

"My name sir? Why my name is Betsy, Elizabeth Bann. And you may I ask what your name is?"

He smiled at me again.

"My name is, Liam Jenkins known to my friends as Angelus though."

"Liam that's a nice name, my father was called Liam," I said with a sigh in my voice quite enough that I didn't think he would have noticed it. But he did and asked me about my father and why he had left to me wander the streets alone, it was then I told him,

"My father died two years ago from a broken heart so I'm alone in the world except for my sisters and brother for whom I care for."

He looked at me for a moment before saying, "Tis a sad thing for a girl as young as you to be lumbered with such a labour."

I stood up and brushed my skirt his comment causing anger to escape from my mouth

"Tis not an unwelcome labour but a labour of love, I choose to do it, I could move away or send the children away if I wanted to but I have chosen to keep them and I do so out of love. So it is not that I am lumbered with this life, it is simply the one which I have chosen."

He offered me his arm again and we began to walk the down the main road.

"I did not mean to offend you, Betsy.............."

I interrupted him then saying "forgive my quick words, I did not mean them to sound so but they spoke the truth none the less."

A smile erupted across his face a hearty laugh escaped his lips

"You apologise for the temperament behind your words but not the words themselves? You are a passionate one and no mistake, but take no offence at my words lass."

I smiled at him not knowing how to respond to that.

"I live but short distance from here sir, but it is outside the town, so I do not except you to inconvenience yourself by accompanying me there."

"Tis no inconvenience lass, but I will not leave you, I could not consider myself a true gentleman unless I escorted you to your door. But you have still not told me why it is that you wander alone out in the streets at night."

We carried on walking towards the tip of the hill before starting on the steep descent on the path, which lead to my home.

"I was out working, sir, I am a midwife's assistant and was called out late to a delivery, I was offered a room at the house but couldn't except it, they do not like it if I spend a night away from them you see sir the children fear to be alone."

He looked straight ahead his back straightening so as to balance himself against the steepness of the hill.

"Well tis my good fortune then, for had it been in the day I might not have met you, I am here to care for my dear sister she is ill and sent for me, I sit at her bedside by day but the night is my own."

We had reached the door of my home at this point and he stood there waiting as I produced the key from my pocket and said,

"Would if inconvenience you if I should come by here tomorrow evening at dusk, I would very much like to walk in the surrounding countryside, but have never been here before and fear getting lost, and I can think of no better guide than your sweet self whom I would prefer."

I smiled at him and said "T'would give me great pleasure to accompany on your stroll Liam, I shall see you tomorrow."

We smiled to each other and he handed me back my bag, he bade me good night once I was safely inside my home, he then started back up the track to the town and I watched him for a moment as he walked before turning in and shutting the door behind me.