Good evening,
My name is Myriam and I teach English in a French junior high school.
I'm looking for a woman who could read this text for me with a British English accent. I need it to be read quite slowly since my students find English a bit difficult.
Thank you so much for helping me.
The woman in the black coat
(from A chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family by Joseph Sheridan Le Fany, 1838)
I was born into a rich and important family in Tyrone, Ireland. I was the younger of two daughters and we were the only children. My sister was six years older than me, so we didn't play much together when I was young and I was only twelve years old when she got married.
I remember the day of her wedding well. Many people came. They were laughing, singing and happy. But I felt sad when my sister left with her new husband, Mr Carew. She was always very nice to me, nicer than my mother. And so I cried when she went away to her new home in Dublin. My mother and father didn't love me – they wanted sons and were not very interested in me.
About a year after my sister got married, a letter arrived from Mr. Carew. He said that my sister was ill and that she wanted to come home to Tyrone and stay with us, to be with her family. I was sad that she was ill but also very happy about her visit.
'They're leaving Dublin on Sunday, ' my father told me, 'and they're arriving her on Tuesday evening.'
Tuesday came, and it was a very long day. Hour after hour came and went, and I listened all the time for my sister and her husband. Now the sky was dark and soon it was midnight, but I couldn't sleep. I listened and waited.
Suddenly, at about one o'clock in the morning, I heard a noise far away. I ran out of my bedroom and down the living-room.
'They're here!They're here!' I called to my father, and we quickly opened the front door to see better. We waited there for a few minutes and we heard the noise again. Somebody was crying far away in the night. But we saw nothing. There were no lights and no people there. We went outside, waiting to say hello and to help my sister with her bags. But nobody was there; nobody came. I looked at my father and he looked at me. We didn't understand.
'I know I heard a noise ' he said.
'Yes,' I answered. 'I heard it too, father, but where are they?'
We went back into the house without another word. We were suddenly afraid.The next day a man arrived and told us that my sister was dead. On Sunday she felt very ill, on Monday she was worse and on Tuesday, at about one o'clock in the morning she died.... at the same time that we were outside the house, in the night, waiting for her.
A couple of missed words and a small stumble. It is so hard to speak slowly; I hope it is slow enough.