A Daughter's Love - Book 2 The Frencolian Chronicles (complete)

Chapter Ten

"You don't know nothin', Luke Chatelain!" The shepherd's son sat mounted, his hands on his hips, watching Luke's feeble efforts to drive the sheep into the fold.

Swinging himself off his horse, John Junior yelled once more, "I'll stand in the way to stop those in the fold coming out and when you fetch the laggards, I'll show you how to do it. Just don't chase 'em further away! When you've got 'em headed towards the fold, keep quiet and walk slow."

Luke muttered as he walked down the slope towards the thicket. "Dumb sheep! They won't do nothing right." He turned as John yelled again.

"Go around 'em! If you head straight into 'em, they'll go into the thicket and you won't ever get'em out!"

Cautious now, Luke still muttered under his breath; he was tired of this 'lesson' and it had barely begun. 

Some time later, he followed the sheep as they walked together back up the slope toward the fold.

John whistled and turned, leading the sheep through the gate. To Luke's amazement, the sheep followed. The shepherd boy laughed and Luke knew he had deliberately set him up to make fun of him.

"Sheep can't be driven; they have to be led, Luke. You should've seen y'self! Critters 'n dags 'n all directions!"

He gazed up at the sky, calling, "There's a storm a'comin'. I'll be sleepin' here tonight. You'd better see what Pa wants you to do next. Have Ma make me a food pack, and bring it up here afore dark."

Luke made his way back to the house and informed Jane of John's request. The mother said she would send young Jane with the food and Luke could take a food pack to Shepherd John who was at the closest fold. The last ewes were lambing and the shepherd would remain with them.

"To help with the birth of a lamb or two would be a good experience for you, Luke," the shepherd's wife declared, with a smile on her sun-tanned face.

Taking the parcel, Luke wondered why he needed such experience. He muttered miserably to himself all the way to the fold.

"A big storm's coming," Shepherd John said, confirming his son's forecast, pointing to the ominous black clouds swirling closer. "Stay here with me. We might have to bunk down here for a couple of days."

The shepherd ordered Luke to stoke the fire already blazing on the dirt floor of the hut. A ewe lay in the shelter, panting and struggling. Another lay in the same condition, near a pile of fresh hay, in the corner of a stone alcove.

Luke knew this was where they would sleep. He thought of his four-poster bed at the manor house and his bitterness towards his father for having 'dumped' him here, increased. The rest of the family had gone off for a good time.

I should have been allowed to go with Louis and Marcus, he thought resentfully.

"Here, hold her for me, Luke."

Luke put down the bread he was toasting at the fire. The fat ewe stood, wanting to leave the shelter. Shepherd John placed his arms around her neck, speaking in soothing tones, as though to an injured child. Taking her two right legs, the shepherd turned her gently to lie on her side. Luke knelt at her head.

"Talk to her," the shepherd said, smiling at Luke's look of disdain. "Tell her that she'll be all right. Hold her front legs down so she can't get up."

By the time the lamb was born, Luke's attitude had spun around to face a new direction.

The amazement of seeing for the first time, a tiny creature enter the world in such a primitive way, in the crude surroundings of the fold, Luke found he was no longer a spectator but had become part of the drama.