The Gisborne Chronicles

CHR4/CH5- The Howling, and a Missing Child

Christmas was celebrated, Winter thawed into early Spring, and with it came the bustle of lambing. All around were signs of rebirth, as first snowdrops, then daffodils began to bloom in the woods and hedgerows. In fact the only perceived lack of new offspring seemed to be in the farmhouse.

At the cottage Glenys was two months from her lying in, and Hywell was impatient to meet 'his boy' having already foresworn any possibility of a second daughter. Glenys merely smiled and kept her own counsel, as she busied herself with any farm beast that might be suffering for the want of her ministrations.

As she bustled around with her box, little Cerys could always be seen toddling, then stumbling along behind her, having only recently 'found her feet'. There had been some concern at first on her lack of independent mobility, though Glenys made nothing of it, declaring that she herself had not walked until she was almost two.

"Every child finds its own way, " she said, "there is no great race to be won, merely a life to live as God sees fit."

As is sometimes the case, early Spring reverted back to winter, and heavy snow fell for almost a full month. It was fortunate that new livestock had not yet been purchased or there would have been insufficient warm shelter for them. As it was, the few heifers  retained for the meat and dairy needs of the Gisborne table were easily accommodated, along with ewes and the first few lambs, though more fodder had been required to supplement their diet, when the new fallen snow covered all spring growth in the grazing meadows.

Aunt Gwyneth took it upon herself to put out appropriate food for the poor creatures who had rushed into false Spring from their long winter sleep, sitting up each night preparing plates of seeds, nuts and beef fat for the birds or squirrels, and the eldest children scurried about stealing scraps from unfinished supper plates for the small creatures who hovered hopefully around the kitchen door.

The first signs of possible trouble came one Monday eve, when all at the Gisborne farm were roused by the sound of some creature fighting with another in the woods at the back of the house.

" 'tis wolves , Sir,  come down from the hills," said Hywell, "there will be starving Cubs born far too soon with the false Spring and all, and the she wolves hungry themselves, without milk to suckle them. It is nature's way, but cruel it seems to me, I take no pleasure in young creatures taken from life so early."

He regretted his words the next morning, when two pregnant ewes were found to have been taken from their winter shelter and torn to pieces not half a mile from the house.

"We shall have to go after them Master," he said, " for once they find easy pickings they will surely be back, and we can ill afford the loss. We shall have to join forces with the neighbouring farms, and traps will have to be set, there is no other way."

"But so cruel a death, " said Guy, " how many do you think?"

"There may be a full pack, Sir," he replied, " or as few as two pairs with Cubs, they took sufficient for the latter number it seems to me, and if that be so, they'll be easily routed out. The Cubs will either starve or freeze, and I take no pleasure in that, but our beasts must be protected."

The neighbours were summoned to a meeting at the Gisborne farm, and all were agreed. It had been many years since wolves had been seen so close to the village, but old traps were dragged out from dusty corners, refurbished  and greased. It was agreed that none should venture out alone to set them, and that two would be involved in the setting out of the snares, with as many standing watch as could be mustered. All would be well armed.

In the bitter cold the traps were set, twenty men set out, some with elder sons alongside them, for the lure of a wolf hunt in the district was a grand enticement to boys on the cusp of manhood. They tramped eight miles in all that first day, setting the traps in a circular pattern in the forlorn hope of catching their prey in a confined area.