Chapter One
In the small bedroom of her thatched cottage, Kerry Tierney struggled to give
birth to her third child. Sleet, thick and dangerous, slanted sideways, pounding
against the windows, seeping under the door, leaving great wet puddles on the
flagstone. Outside, the driveway glittered like glass under the falling ice and
snow.
Wind roared from the north, dislodging stones from unmortared fences, uprooting
stunted trees, ripping through power lines, overturning boats in the harbor,
sweeping away henhouses, pony carts, street signs, everything not securely tied
down.
Lashed to the mooring, the ferry dipped and rose, a twig helpless in the endless
cresting of the Atlantic's mighty swells. The airport had been closed since
early morning, all flights to the mainland canceled, throwing the island into an
isolated darkness not seen in twenty years.
Kerry had been pushing for nearly six hours with little progress. The child
wouldn't descend beyond the pubic bone. The midwife, Mabry O'Farrell, knew that
her patient belonged in a hospital. She knew also that there was no hope of
getting her there in this weather.
"Come, lass," Mabry urged, paying no attention to the white face and trembling
hands of the young man ... read full excerpt from Spellbound ebook
