The unwanted bargain
An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
The buyer counted the money onto the stable ledge. Jonas watched each coin fall, calculating the rent it would pay and the debts it would silence. The horse stretched its neck towards his sleeve. He moved away before it could touch him. A useful sum, he told himself. More than he had expected.
The buyer asked whether the animal had any faults. Jonas described its stubbornness, then found himself explaining how gently it carried children and how it knew the road home without guidance. The buyer smiled and took the reins. Jonas stepped forward to adjust a buckle that needed no adjustment. Only when the gate opened did he remove his hand from the leather.
Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to reveal Jonas’s mixed feelings about selling his horse. Support your answer with references to the passage.
120 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE English Language 1.3 Content: prose fiction study requirements, covering 1.3.1 Read challenging prose fiction for the unseen 19th-century extract. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.