“Breakfast,”he declared, a warm smile gracing his features.
“How?”I inquired, genuinely surprised at his successful catch.
“Malcolm and I used to hunt these parts, remember?”he explained, showcasing his skills as he skinned and dressed the rabbit. Fashioning a stand with two sticks, he roasted the rabbit over the fire. As he worked silently, there was an ease between us, as if we had always been and knew we would always be together.
“Thank you for tending the fire while I was gone. I was trying to conserve what little wood we had left for cooking,”he said gratefully, flashing me a smile. A small opening in the wall of the ruin overlooked the loch, an old window, perhaps, fallen in and destroyed by time. I walked over and looked out. A low mist hovered just above the water’s edge.
“Strange thing to see this time of year, the mist,”James said, following my gaze out the small opening. The mist, made more otherworldly by the patchy morning light, reminded me of a story Gran used to tell me.
“Did your gran ever tell youstories about creatures that roamed the waters of lochs like this?”I asked James as I looked out toward the frozen water.
“I hate to admit it, but I was a scared child, so my mother forbade stories at bedtime because I would refuse to go to bed if I got even a tiny bit frightened. But of course, I know most of them now. I bet your gran had some grand stories of creatures to tell,”he said, an endearing boyish grin stretching across his face.
“Yes, Gran is quite a good storyteller. Probably a good thing she wasn’t your gran because you would have never slept again,”I teased.“The loch this morning reminds me of a tale she told me years ago about a kelpie that came out of the misty waters and could shapeshift, turning into a beautiful woman or a prized deer, luring men and children to their deaths in the waters of the loch. She said the most malevolent ones picked lochs far away from villages and along paths that travelers often used,”I told him, giving myself a bit of a shiver at the idea.
“Yes, Malcolm has told me similar tales. Do you believe in such things?”he asked as he cut off a piece of rabbit and fashioned it on a stick for me.
I sat for a long moment, thinking. I had never been sure I believed in such things but now that I myself had powers, all those tales became more of a possibility. I could not share this with him, however, as he might think me a witch or some kind of evil creature. The thought of keeping this secret from James pulled at my conscience and soured my mood.
“I think most tales start in truth,”I told him as I took a bite of the rabbit. He smiled and nodded, looking out onto the frosty mist lingering on the loch below.
After we finished our breakfast, James packed our belongings and helped me onto the horse. As we rode up the path, I glanced back at the old stone ruin fondly, cherishing the memories it now held within its ancient walls.
The ride down the sloping hillside was slow, and James was quiet.He hadn’t spoken a word since we left the ruin, and a pit began to form in the base of my belly. Had I said or done something wrong? I played over the events of the morning in my head. Had it been the story of the kelpie? Had I said something that led him to be suspicious of me? What changed? Perhaps he regretted the passion we had shared, the reality of the gap in our social standing taking its place?
James suddenly slowed the horse to a stop and jumped down from its back.
“Is everything okay?”I asked as he turned to face me. James walked over and took my hand in his, bestowing a gentle kiss upon it. Startled by his sudden change in demeanor, I said,“What are you doing? I thought you were cross with me?”
He smiled.“Cora Douglas, I could never be cross with you. I’m sorry for my silence. Something has been weighing heavily on my mind since this morning.”
“What?”I inquired, looking down at him from atop the horse, nervousness tightening my core.
“I care not for my father’s wishes or societal constraints. I love you and want to be the man who herds your sheep and fathers your children. I want to buy a printing press and publish every book or poem you write. Society’s judgments be damned,”he declared, kissing my hand once more.
“James, what are you suggesting?”I inquired, taken aback by his sudden proposal.
“For you to be my wife. My father insists on my choosing a bride, and I choose you.”
I sat there stunned, not knowing what to say or how to feel about this quick proposal even though I wanted to say yes more than anything.
“James, I am a woman of no standing; your father would disown you if you were to marry someone like me. I am not fit to be a duchess. I have not a noble name or a dowry to speak of,”I said, my words tinged with sadness.
He pulled me down from the horse and held me in his arms, kissingme so passionately that I felt if I died at that moment, I would die the happiest I had ever been.“I care not for titles or wealth; I would gladly renounce it all for you, Cora,”he whispered to me between kisses. I fell into his embrace, and if we had not been traveling in the depths of winter, love would have bloomed once more there on the hill overlooking Loch Ness.
I pulled away breathlessly, and he cupped my face in his hands.
“Yes, a million times yes,”I said. He drew me back into a kiss, then lifted me, spinning me around in the cold, wintry air before setting me back atop the horse.
“Now, let us return this to your gran, and I shall share the news with my father,”he declared, jumping onto the horse and guiding us back onto the path. The path led us toward the edge of the loch before weaving back into the thicket of the forest where I had lost my horse the prior day. As we neared the loch, James slowed the horse and came to a complete halt once again.
“Do you see that?”he said, pointing to a small figure on the thin ice covering the loch. I squinted against the brightness of the snow and the emerging sun. Once my eyes adjusted, I saw what he was pointing at—a small girl, no more than Alice’s age, standing as if frozen on the ice. A jolt of fear raced through me as the dream I had at the Turners came rushing back.
“It’s a child. She’ll drown if she falls through,”I said, not taking my eyes off the little one.
James called out to her,“It’s not safe out there! Come back to shore.”
The girl remained motionless.“Come back to shore,”he called out again, louder this time, yet the girl did not hear him.
