Free Where the Stones Sing by Eithne Massey

gather some acorns in the woods for the priory pigs. He impressed upon them the need to be back at Christ Church before it got dark.
    ‘For we live in lawless times, and you never know who might be out there on the road, lying in wait for travellers.’
    Roland watched them go with a sulky face. Tom had invited him to come along, feeling it would be too mean not to ask him, but Roland had made it clear that he had no interest in visiting Tom’s family. Now he seemed to be annoyed because he wasn’t going with them.
    ‘Should I ask him again? Tom said anxiously. ‘Maybe I should, though I know he’ll just ruin the day for all of us.’
    Jack shook his head vigorously.
    ‘Don’t bother. He probably just wants the chance to say no and be rude to you, and make horrible comments about your family. We’ll be far better off without him, won’t we, Kai?
    Kai had to agree. She had long since given up trying to include Roland in the fun they had together. ‘I’m afraid so. Any time I have tried to be nice to Roland it has just made him nastier to me.’
    They made their way through the early-morning streets. Although it was so early, there were signs of activity around. They passed where a market was being set up. As the traders emptied their big wicker baskets, piling meat and fish, autumn fruit and vegetables on the trestles that lined the street, they shouted greetings to the children. Already, pigs foraged underneath, hoping that something would fall down to their eagerly waiting snouts.
    As the children went out past St James’s Gate, which marked the boundary of the real countryside, on past Dame Maria’s house, and further west, the scenery became a patchwork of fields and small stands of trees. Westward, there were the woods which grew wild and stretched for miles out beyond Kilmainham. Walking along, Tom explained that his father’s mill was one of three on the Cammock, the little river that branched off the Liffey.
    ‘One of them belongs to the Knights Hospitallers – you will see the walls of their priory soon. They are a very rich order who own almost all the land around Kilmainham. My father’s mill has always belonged to his family though, and he supplies flour even to the Hospitallers. We have a farm too, and some orchards. And we keep a few horses. Thoughthey are just farm horses, so I don’t know if you will want to bother seeing them.’
    ‘I will,’ said Jack. ‘Any horse is better than none.’
    Tom could hardly contain his excitement as they came closer to the village of Kilmainham. He had not been home since the beginning of the summer. Part of him was very proud of his home, while another part was really sad because he realised that he could not go back to live there. He missed his family. He missed the noise and bustle and comings and goings of the mill.
    Now he walked so fast that it was hard for Jack and Kai to keep up with him, chattering all the while.
    ‘Can we stop for a moment?’ said Jack breathlessly. ‘I want to have a look at the horses in that field.’
    Reluctantly, Tom stopped walking but could not stop himself from jigging up and down impatiently as Jack went over towards the horses. Kai smiled at him. Tom was usually the quietest of them all, the last one to react to anything. But of course he was going home; he had been born in the mill and lived there all his life. Unlike herself and Jack, he had a real home to go to. But at least, thought Kai, she had her father and her brother; poor Jack had no family. Yet it did not seem to bother him; he was smiling now, stroking the soft noses of the horses they had stopped to see. The whole herd had immediately raced over to him when he had called to them from the fence.
    But Tom was urging them to move on. ‘When we get to the top of the hill, we will be able to see the Knights Hospitallers ’ priory. Come, on. Look, there it is.’
    The children saw a large group of stone buildings rising up beyond the walls that enclosed the