An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.
Across the fen, the drainage engine thudded on, as patient and unchanging as an iron heart. Clara had been told that the sick child’s cottage stood just beyond the engine-house, but the mist had hidden the road, the ditches and even the reeds beside her. She could only hear that steady labour somewhere ahead. At each heavy stroke, her grip on the medicine bottle eased a little.
Then it stopped.
The silence did not descend; it rose from the black water and gathered about her. Clara waited for the engine to begin again. When it did not, she called the child’s name, but the mist seemed to swallow her voice before it had travelled ten yards. She could no longer tell whether the road curved left or right.
From beyond the reeds came a child’s cough. The sound was slight, yet Clara turned towards it at once. Relief weakened her knees; then the child coughed again, more harshly, and relief gave way to urgency. Between Clara and the sound lay a drainage ditch crossed by a single narrow plank. Her fingers were still trembling as she tested the plank, lifted the medicine clear of the water and crossed towards the lamp now showing through the reeds.
Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to present Clara’s changing response to sound. In your answer, consider whether the ending suggests that her fear has been overcome. Support your ideas with references to the passage.