Jirvel smiled then too. "The poor dear. And she be married to a lad who will never love her. Her fate be perhaps worse than ours."
"But if she died, would he…"
"Dinna even think such a thing. I have had enough pain and I will not add that guilt to it." She took the cloth back and wiped the last of her daughter's tears away. "All I ask is that ye dinna blame him. Yer father did not do this to hurt ye."
"I will try, for yer sake." She got up, kissed her mother's cheek and headed for bed. But when she got to the doorway, she turned back. "I have seen a sea monster, Stefan."
"When?"
"Just afore ye found me on the hill. It jumped out o' the water and I swear it saw me."
"What did it look like?"
"A fish…an enormous fish with a huge mouth. Ye have won the wager and I will take ye to see the hidden castle come warmer weather." She turned back around and went to bed.
Jirvel took hold of Stefan's arm. "'Tis dangerous and we are forbidden to go there. Talk her out o' it, she listens to ye."
*
After the noon meal of the next day when Stefan opened the door intending to fetch a bucket of water from the river, he was shocked to find Macoran seated on a horse in the courtyard holding the reins to a second horse. He had not heard a sound. He worried that he was about to be taken away, but Macoran was alone so he relaxed and stuck his head back in the door. "Laird Macoran be here."
Immediately, Kannak and Jirvel came out and as she always did, Jirvel glared at him. "Why are ye here?"
"I brought Stefan a horse o' his own and I have come to see my daughter." He tossed the reins of the other horse to Stefan and continued, "Come here, Kannak."
She was hesitant but finally walked to him. Then he leaned down, opened his arms and smiled. "Will ye ride with me, daughter?"
She was still uncertain, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and let him lift her onto the horse. She was as stiff as a board with her hands folded in her lap and her legs over one of his when he put his arm around her waist and turned the horse. He did not turn down the path as she expected. Instead, he urged the horse halfway up the side of the hill, found a small clearing, stopped and turned the horse around. Through the trees, she could see the cottage, the land and a little of the river beyond.