Bruar's Rest

‘I’m the only one.’ Then, as if an invisible demon had leapt out and begun playing fiddle music from hell, he performed a form of war dance, clicking red leather heeled boots and swirling his coat tails back and forth like a dancer.
    This was looking more like fun, but the fading light was creating shadows and obscurity. From her hidden spot she couldn’t make out who was who. The hand-held torches were dimming. ‘I’ll have to get down there,’ she thought, ‘I have to see who wins.’
    Folding her petticoat and flowing dress over one arm she scrambled down the rough quarry wall. Halfway down she found a sturdy tree stump and twined her free arm around it. Resting her chin onto knees she waited with eager excitement. From this new vantage-point she saw every sinewy muscle of the caveman-like pair.
    Bull, who’d been silent throughout Moses’ ranting and dancing, turned to his mate Hawen and stretched out an open hand. A hush spread within the crowd. Hawen pulled something from a bag and put it on the waiting hand; it was a curled-up hedgehog. As Bull grabbed it and pushed a fist into its belly, a great gasp of ‘Oooohhhh!’ came from the mesmerised crowd. The prickly little animal stretched its curled spine. Then, without warning, he sank his teeth into its nose. It squealed and he crunched into its head. He spat out an eye and cracked its skull between two rows of flashing white teeth. Looking around every single person—and by now there were dozens—he slowly sucked out the poor beast’s brains and swallowed them, then handed what remained back to Hawen.
    Ruth had warned her. The yellow vomit came forth like a fountain, spattering the moss-covered tree stump. She felt faint, her grip weakened, and had it not been for Lucy who’d joined her she’d have fallen to the quarry floor, probably breaking a limb. ‘Stupid thing, why did you not go with the others? A fight with these pigs is never a sight for squeamish bellies.’
    ‘I haven’t got a sickly gut. I can take a lot, but not seeing an innocent animal being mauled for fun I can’t. It makes me ashamed of being related to gypsy origins if this is what’s done.’
    ‘This is not our ways, but there are evil types in every group. Those people down there are the dregs of society. You never see them until something like this brings them from beneath stones. Beggars, drunkards, thieves, murderers, they seem to crawl from the sewers. Surely you have them in Scotland?’
    ‘I think we do, but I never saw any, apart from a certain Irishman. I heard Mammy call them “blue bucks”.’
    ‘Never mind watching anymore, this will get worse. Come with me, I know of a narrow path just over here.’ She pointed to a shadowy corner concealed behind other tree stumps.
    ‘No, Lucy, you’d better get off and meet your Mr Newton, I’ll find the ledge path myself. I was born among mountains and rock faces. A small quarry wall is nothing to me, honest. No, I’m going to watch this fight, even if only this one time. I want to tell my Bruar all the gory bits when we next meet.’
    ‘Then I’ll keep you company, because we don’t meet until midnight.’
    The pair snuggled closely, sharing a shawl, while down below the crowd was being roused to fever pitch by the brutal antics of both Bull and Moses.
    ‘The more they perform, the faster and heavier go the bets. Along with the rats, some men in that crowd are cattle-thieves, horse-dealers, true life outlaws. A lot of big money is being pushed back and forth,’ Lucy informed her.
    ‘Who would you back, Lucy, if you had the lowie, that is?’
    ‘Bull Buckley has the devil on his side and has never been beat. Moses is here like many more to take him out.’
    ‘Yes, but you haven’t said—who would you put money on?’
    ‘I pray both kill each other, then this quiet part of England will revert back to the peaceful place it once was. Ever since that beast has taken the road with us we’ve had nothing but a bad name. He brings the lawless with him, and nobody likes a hair on his head. I tell you, if I were a man he wouldn’t be standing there. He’d be six feet under.’
    ‘You really hate him that much? I heard it was Ruth he ill-treated.’
    ‘Ruth’s my full cousin, and if you’d seen her two eyes when he’d finished with her then you’d hate him too. Her Daddy and mine were killed by a runaway horse. They had spent days breaking a big red stallion. It was a rogue animal, had a brain