No Way of Telling Quotes

″...but from there she had to trudge by herself through the driving snowflakes to the Gwyntfa, the gray stone cottage where she lived alone with her grandmother, Mrs. Bowen.”

“She sat in the rocking-chair, a pillow-case crammed with old pieces of cloth on the floor beside her, and in her lap the cardboard shapes she had cut ready the previous evening.”

Once home, Amy knew she was safe. With a well-stoked larder and plenty of oil for the lamps, her grandmother promised her they might even enjoy being snowed in.

The day they were sent home early from school because of a threatening blizzard, Amy rode with the other pupils in Mrs. Rhys’s van to where the road ended.

But on the day the snow began they never played their game of cards.They were interrupted by a growl from Amy’s dog, a tremendous thump at the door, and an intrusion of such violence as they had never in their lives met before.

″..and in the four extraordinary days that followed, bringing intruders of a different kind, Amy discovered that her grandmother’s instinct had been right.”

They liked each other’s company and every night would sit one on each side of the fire, working at their patchwork quilt until it was time for a cup of tea and a game of Patience or Two-handed Whist before bed.

Yet though there was no way of telling who their intruder might be, Mrs. Bowen somehow knew he meant them no harm.

“Mrs. Bowen raked the fire and put the guard in front. She looked round the room absently, as though she were seeing it fresh in the way a stranger might see it.”

“Mick flew ahead up the slope. Amy retrieved the can of milk and did her best to hurry after him, but as soon as she was clear of trees she felt again the strength of the wind and the sharp bite of the snow it carried with it and she had to go slowly.”