Winston Graham

There could have been prophecy in the storm that blew up at the time of Julia’s birth. May month was not a time for heavy gales, but the climate of Cornwall is capricious as any child ever born. It had been a kindly enough spring, as kindly as the summer and winter that had gone before it; mild, soft, comfortable weather; and the land was already heavy with green things. Then May broke rainy and gusty, and the blossom suffered here and there and the hay leaned about looking for support. On the night of the fifteenth Demelza felt her first pains.