There was another splash.
“All right, let me think... do ye need me to find ye?”
Silence.
Lucy thought hard. “Can I bring ye something?”
There was a splash. The momentary triumph of asking the right question was overshadowed by the realisation that the nymph needed anything at all. Lucy worried she might be here forever. She thought hard.
“Is it something in the forest?” she asked. There was silence again. “The village?” More silence. Lucy began wondering if there was anywhere else.
“What isn’t forest or village, though?” she said aloud, as she went round and round with the conundrum.
“Is it on a farm?” she hazarded, but when there was silence it only proved this had been a silly suggestion.
Lucy stared around her, as though the answer would be somewhere nearby, but she’d already established Keelie didn’t want something from the forest.
If only Hugh or Steen were here, with three of them guessing, Lucy was sure this would get solved much more quickly. But Steen was in his bakery, and Hugh was at sea. Wait...
“The sea! Is it the sea?” Lucy asked quickly.
There was a splash in the stream. Well that made things easier. Now she just had to guess what, out of all the things in the sea, Keelie needed.
“Is it a fish?” Lucy began.
Chapter 9
As though the strange happenings with the well were not enough, Steen was now thoroughly perplexed. Not five minutes ago, Hugh came into the bakery holding a squid, or something with enough tentacles to be one.
“We’ve got a problem,” he grumbled.
Steen waited for some sort of explanation. When none was forthcoming, he asked, “Why—and I ken I’ll regret askin’ mind—but why are ye standing in my bakery holding that sea beastie?”
“The sea’s gone strange,” Hugh said. “And I cannae find Lucy anywhere.”
Steen frowned. “What do those two things have tae do with one another?”
“I dinnae ken, except the sea literally threw this squid at me just now.”
“Very... peculiar,” Steen said. “And Lucy?”
“We need tae find her for she has a bad ankle and she’s no’ in her house or around the village. Naebody’s seen her for hours.”
“I’ll let my papas ken I need the rest of the day off.” Steen walked into the back of the bakery, hoping his papas wouldn’t turn down his request.
It must have been about an hour later. Lucy was sitting down on the forest floor, her ankle stretched out, her other leg tucked under her, and she was shredding a dead leaf and still trying to guess what Keelie wanted from the sea.
“Is it a message in a bottle?” she asked. She had exhausted all the types of sea creatures she knew of, and was now picking things from pirate stories her papas had told her about when she was younger.
It was so long since she’d last heard Keelie splashing in the stream that Lucy suddenly wondered if Keelie was still there at all. She still had no idea what was actually wrong with her.
“Is it some seawater?” she asked, because she literally couldn’t think of anything else.
At long last, there was a very loud splash from the stream. Lucy laughed aloud.
“Ye serious? Ye need some seawater?” The spirit world was nothing if not bizarre.
Keelie splashed again.
“Will a bucket of it be enough?”
There was another splash. Lucy giggled again, having finally solved the mystery.
She carefully got to her feet and, with the aid of her walking stick, extremely slowly wandered back out of the forest. Of course, how she was going to carry a bucket, never mind a bucket filled with water, all the way from the sea to the stream, was another complication entirely.
She would build that bridge when she came to it.
Lucy wanted to avoid the village, because she had a feeling too many people would get in the way and ask questions and generally complicate what she needed to do, so instead, she filched a cast iron pail from around the back of the first house she came to, and lugged it all the way to the sea.
When she got there, she realised, whatever had happened to Keelie, there was a much more concerning problem. The sea itself was roiling and waves were cresting. It was like a terrible storm had hit the water, except it was a warm, sunny day in the middle of June. The wind was low and there were birds in the trees. But the sea was behaving as though it was January. When she stepped onto the sand with the bucket, the sea reared up, turning into the shape of an enormous, fifteen-feet-high man. He stood before her—no, she corrected herself, he loomed over her—and roared.
“You dare take my precious essence to give to the little nymph?” His voice was so loud and angry Lucy almost fell backwards as the words blew into her like a gale. She knew at once he was someone extremely powerful from the spirit world, and she didn’t want him to be angry at her.
“What is wrong with Keelie?” Lucy asked timidly.
“She is going to pass over to the other side for what she did,” he boomed.
“What did she do? She’s harmless!”
Lucy gripped the pail tightly and leaned on her stick for support as she tried to make her voice heard over the wind that whipped her hair into her face.
“She used someone else’s water. The River Crief. Its spirit brought a grievance against her, so I have taken her life force. What is it to you, little human?” he demanded.
“I owe her a debt of gratitude. And I’d like tae repay it. It’s only a little sea water,” Lucy replied, trying to keep a calm demeanour although inside, she was terrified.
“What do I get in return?” he asked.
Lucy cast her mind around trying to understand what she could possibly offer to a sea monster, or whatever he was.
“I dinnae ken... I dinnae have anything worth your while.”
The enormous being seemed to consider this for a long moment before he finally replied.
“Take the water, and in exchange, I will take you.”
Lucy thought on this for a moment. The village could not survive without its water supply. Something had to be done to remedy it as soon as possible. She knew that Steen and Hugh would try to stop her, but if the village didn’t have water, then both men would have to move away from the village or die of thirst. Everyone would. If they moved away, she couldn’t marry them both, anyway. There was nowhere else in the country where a woman could have two husbands. It would be a scandal and she was quite sure there were laws about such things. And Keelie didn’t deserve to die. Did her stream nourish other things, aside from the village and the trees around it? What else would be harmed if the stream wasn’t kept alive?
Lucy wasn’t sure what the sea spirit would want with a human girl, but all the same, she nodded, giving his proposal some deep thought.
“I have questions,” she said.
“Ask them, although my patience is finite.”
He seemed quite intimidating and rude, and she didn’t like that. Lucy thought if he was going to whisk her away, he could tell her a few things, first. Especially since she would have to spend time with him, and he was clearly quite cantankerous.
“What would ye do with me?”
“Anything I chose.” His answer made her shiver, and she didn’t like the idea of being the plaything of a gigantic sea spirit at all, but if this was the only way to save the village, and Hugh and Steen, she would do it.
“How long would you take me for?”
“Eternity,” he said.
She shook her head. “I dinnae live that long. And I dinnae think forever is worth a bucket of water. One month.”
“Your notion of bargaining is amusing. But one month is not acceptable. A year, or nothing.”
A year? She could be back with Steen and Hugh this time next year, and they could all resume their life, dance together, and start a family? She still didn’t like the prospect of being enslaved to this creature for a year, but it was a
much better bargain than forever. Anyway, what else could she do? Keelie would die and it would be the end of the entire village, its ways of life... if they all refused to move—and she was sure some people would because otherwise families would be torn apart—they would die.
All for the want of a bucket of water.
It wasn’t likely she was going to be able to dance at the Circle Dance, tomorrow, anyway, with her bad ankle.
She didn’t even dare contemplate what this creature would do once he had her. He had made it clear that she would be at his beck and call. But someone had to do something and there was nobody else here to do it.
With a heartfelt sigh, she nodded. “Very well.” She held out the bucket. Water poured into it, until she was barely able to hold it.
“If you do not return to me by sunset, I will come searching for you. And the consequences will be dire.”
Lucy nodded, and a cold dread settled into her stomach. As the sea receded, she turned and began struggling back to the forest with the pail of water. As she got close to the village, Hugh and Steen found her. She groaned inwardly.
“Lassie!” Steen cried.
“We’ve been searching everywhere for ye,” Hugh added.
“What do you ken aboot the village’s water supply?” Steen asked. Hugh took the bucket from her and she sighed with relief.
“It’s Keelie, the water nymph,” Lucy said. “She got into trouble. She’s tied tae the Frostbite stream, but she used the river Crief for something, an’ it complained tae the sea. I think it wa’ the sea, anyway. An’ the sea decided to do somethin’ bad tae Keelie, as punishment. She needs a bucket of sea water to fix her.” Lucy left out the part where she gave herself to the sea spirit. The men would only be angry with her and she didn’t want either of them to get harmed for her mistake.
“She used the river Crief? But that was when she was telling me where ye were! If she hadn’t, ye’d be dead, lass,” Hugh said.
Lucy frowned. If Keelie had gotten into this situation from helping her, that was all the more reason to do whatever she must to save her.
“We’ll help,” Steen said, giving her an arm for support.
“Aye. I’d send ye home, but I have the feeling you have a lot more understanding of this situation than you’re letting on,” Hugh remarked.
Lucy pressed her lips together. She didn’t want them to know exactly how much she knew; or how much she had sacrificed for the water nymph.
Chapter 10
Lucy was hiding something, and Hugh knew it. Something to do with the water problem. The three of them walked in near-silence to the nearest portion of the Frostbite. Hugh placed the bucket on the ground.
“Now what?” he asked.
“Keelie? Are you here?” Lucy called. There was a feeble splash from the stream, and for all Hugh knew, it might have been a rat jumping into the water. Lucy interpreted it differently, however. “She’s grown weaker. Quick. The bucket.”
Steen picked up the pail of water and stepped towards the stream.
“Do I just... tip it in?”
Hugh looked to Lucy for an answer.
“I suppose so,” she replied.
Steen turned the bucket over, and the seawater seemed to move slowly, reluctantly, toward the stream. Hugh had never considered bodies of water to have a mind of their own, but this seemed to certainly be behaving strangely.
When the sea water reached the stream, it sat on the surface for a moment, like driftwood, sinking into the moving water.
Nothing happened for several long seconds.
“Are ye sure this was the right way tae do it, lass?” Hugh wondered.
“Honestly? I dinnae ken. Hope so, though. Otherwise we’re gallivanting back tae the sea again and I dinnae ken what it’ll want me tae do for another bucket. Oh!” Lucy clapped her hand over her mouth and Hugh fixed her with a hard glare. His hardest.
“What did ye agree tae do?” he demanded. Her eyes widened and she tried to take a step backwards but her bad ankle wouldn’t let her, and she picked it back up off the ground hopping on one foot for a moment trying to balance, until Steen stepped in and held her.
“Lass?” Steen prompted.
Lucy looked from one man to the other and Hugh saw she felt cornered. She’d definitely done something stupid. And she didn’t want them to find out.
“I have tae return tae the sea before sunset,” she confessed.
“Why?” Hugh asked.
“I-I... oh please dinnae be mad at me... I... um...”
But at that moment, Keelie appeared.
“She promised herself to the sea spirit,” Keelie explained. Lucy looked at the forest floor and her cheeks had flushed a crimson colour which immediately told Hugh that Keelie was correct.
“Ye... what?” Steen exclaimed.
“How could ye be so stupid?” Hugh demanded.
Lucy looked at the ground, still, and Hugh watched droplets of water begin to fall from her face. She was crying. “I’m sorry. I just wanted tae save Keelie.”
“How can we fix this?” Steen asked.
“I think a certain water nymph needs tae go and talk tae the river Crief and apologise tae it for her breach o’ protocol,” Hugh said. “And she needs tae make things right wi’ the sea spirit. We cannae afford the sea tae be angry in summer.”
“I... will speak with the river. And for what it’s worth, I am very sorry Lucy is involved. The sea spirit shouldn’t have done that. Remain here.”
Keelie disappeared into the Frostbite, and Hugh and Steen helped Lucy to a fallen log.
“Let me see your ankle, lass,” Hugh said, forcing his voice to be gentle.
Lucy raised her skirt. Hugh unlaced her boot and slid it from her foot, unfastened the tight handkerchief she had bound around it, and he examined her.
The ankle was still bruised, but the swelling was better than last time he’d seen it.
“You’re on the way tae recovery, lassie,” he remarked.
“I didnae mean tae cause trouble,” Lucy said. “If ye both want tae leave me here and go after Millie Woodward instead, I’ll understand.”
“I dinnae want Millie Woodward,” Steen said with a slight note of exasperation. “I want you.”
Was it Hugh’s imagination, or did Lucy look guilty again for a brief moment?
“An’ I want ye too,” Lucy said, gazing into Steen’s eyes. For a moment, Hugh was drawn into the obvious love Steen and Lucy had for one another, and as he watched them kiss, he knew it was time for him to claim her, too.
When Steen and Lucy broke apart, Hugh reached out a hand and stroked her hair.
“I love ye, Lucy,” he told her. Her eyes met his, and he saw the surprise and adoration there.
“I love ye too, Hugh.” She didn’t resist as he put a hand between her shoulders and kissed her passionately. As the kiss went on, he reached down to her left breast and pinched the nipple, and he was rewarded when she made little mewling noises.
He broke away, feeling the ardour of his lust.
“And I love ye, Steen,” she said softly. Hugh and Steen exchanged a look.
The two men were planning something, Lucy decided as she saw a glance pass between them.
As one man, they both moved in. Hugh took her other foot in his hand and unfastened the laces of her boot. Steen worked on the bodice of her dress.
“You’re no’ wearing any o’ that whalebone underwear, are ye, lass?” Hugh asked, as he unfastened the hooks and eyes that closed her dress.
“Cannae ye tell? I’m breathing, aren’t I?” Lucy retorted with a giggle.
“Aye but I’ve never been sure why your waist was so tiny.”
Lucy laughed loudly.
“I’m the size of a house! The only tiny part of me is my feet!”
“I can think of other parts of you that are tiny,” Steen interjected, and Lucy flushed as she remembered how tight she’d been around his finger. Desire surged through her.
“Look, some wom
en go like this,” Hugh held his hands out and moved them up and down in a straight line, “And ye are built like this.” He moved his hands in the shape of an hourglass.
Lucy sighed. “It’s just petticoats.” She refused to believe anything about her figure was desirable. Not after all the cakes she’d eaten.
“We’ll see aboot that,” Hugh replied, putting her boot to one side and running his hands lightly over her feet, stroking them, as Steen finished with her dress. Hugh lifted her as Steen slid her dress down, until it pooled on the ground, and the men laid her on the forest floor. She dimly noted the leaves on the trees made a beautiful contrast against the sky.
“Your figure is not caused by petticoats, lass. Ye’re not wearing any,” Hugh remarked.
“Or other underwear,” Steen pointed out.
“It’s summer,” Lucy replied absently, as a light breeze wrapped its tendrils around her and made her nipples harden. The two men simply gazed at her, as though she were some sort of prize to be treasured.
“I think your figure is perfect,” Hugh said gently, and Steen nodded profusely, beside him.
Lucy chuckled and shook her head. It would take more than one conversation to change her mind, especially when the men so clearly intended to have their way with her. They’d probably tell her she was the queen of Sheba about now if she parted her legs.
Steen and Hugh began to undress. They weren’t wearing much, anyway, because both men had chosen kilts today. They unbuttoned their white-starched shirts, and collars, and they stood topless, in only their tartan kilts, and Lucy took in the hard lines of their bodies. They were incredible.
She wanted to bottle this moment to re-live, again and again. The men removed their sporrans, unfastened their kilt pins, placed all their knives and other accoutrements on the ground, and when they unwrapped the thick tartan fabric from their bodies, Lucy stared in amazement. They both had enormous manhoods, which stood proud and hard. Hugh’s was slightly more curved, and Steen’s throbbed slightly as she watched it.
Lucy licked her lips in anticipation.
Wedded to the Highlanders Page 6
