Shocked by the unhappy emotion she’d just put a name to.
Nonsensical, she chided herself; she’d always known his bride would arrive one day-and that, soon after, she’d leave.
Leave the place she called home.
Lips firming, she thrust the thought away. The others had wandered far ahead; they’d reached the end of the gorge and were continuing on, following the river path into more open meadows. Lifting her head, drawing in a deep breath, she lengthened her stride and set out to catch them up.
No more thinking allowed.
North of the gorge, the river was wider, wending down from the hills through fertile meadowland. It was still deep in the middle, and there it ran swiftly, but the spreading edges flowed more gently.
There was a particular spot where the river rounded a curve, then spread in a wide pool that was especially good for fishing. The men had descended the sloping bank; spreading out in a line along the pool’s edge, casting lures into the stream, they talked only in murmurs as they waited for a bite.
Royce and his male cousins-Gordon, Rohan, Phillip, Arthur, Gregory, and Henry-stood shoulder to shoulder. All tall, dark-haired, and handsome, they were an arresting sight, reducing the other male guests to mere contrast.
The ladies gathered on the bank above. They knew enough to mute their voices; standing in a loose group, they enjoyed the sunshine and the light breeze, chatting quietly.
Minerva joined them. Susannah asked again whether she’d discovered whom Royce had chosen as his bride; Minerva shook her head, then stepped a little away from the group, her eye caught by a flash of color upriver.
From their position, the land rose gently; she could see another party enjoying a pleasant day by the banks two bends upstream.
One of the tenant farmers’ families, plus their laborers’ families as well; squinting, she saw a gaggle of children playing by the water’s edge, laughing and shrieking, or so it seemed, as they played tag. The breeze was blowing northward, so no sound reached her, yet she had to wonder how many fish the men would catch with such a cacophony two hundred yards upstream.
She was about to look away when a girl standing by the stream’s edge suddenly flailed her arms-and fell backward into the stream. The bank had crumbled beneath her heels; she fell with a splash-breath caught, Minerva watched, waiting to see…
The girl’s white cap bobbed to the surface-in the middle of the stream. The current had caught her skirts; even as the adults rushed to the bank, she was whisked downriver, around the next curve.
Minerva looked down at the men. “Royce!”
He looked up, instantly alert.
She pointed upriver. “There’s a girl in the water.” She looked again, spotted the bobbing white cap. “Two bends upstream. She’s in the center and coming down fast.”
Before the last word had left her lips, Royce was giving orders. Rods were dropped; his cousins and the others gathered around him, then the whole group turned and ran downstream.
Royce paused only to call to Minerva, “Yell when she comes around that bend.” He pointed at the last bend before the pool, then raced after the others.
From their vantage point, the ladies watched in horrified fascination. Minerva went as far down the bank as she could without losing sight of the girl. Susannah and two friends joined her, peering after the men. “What are they doing?” Susannah asked.
Minerva spared a quick glance downriver, saw where the men were going-Royce on his own, just beyond the pool, the others still hurrying, leaping over rocks and slipping over wet patches on their way farther down-then looked back at the girl. “Royce is going out on the nearer spit-he’ll catch her. But he’s likely to lose his footing when he does-the current’s running strongly-it’ll take both of them. The others will form a human chain farther down. It’ll be up to them to grab Royce and haul him and the girl in.”
Susannah knew the river; she blanched.
One of her friends frowned. “Why are they trying to catch him? He’s so strong-surely he’ll be able to-”
“It’s the gorge.” Susannah cut her off, her voice harsh. “Oh, God. If they miss him…”
She grabbed up her skirts, climbed the bank, and started running downstream.
“What is it?” Margaret called.
Susannah turned and called something back. Minerva stopped listening. The girl, still weakly struggling, cleared the bend.
She turned and looked downriver. “Royce! She’s coming!”
Standing in the shallows around the next bend, just visible from where she was, he raised a hand in acknowledgment; no longer wearing his coat, he waded deeper into the river.
Minerva hurried down the bank, then along the water’s edge, where the men had stood. Susannah’s other friend, Anne, held her tongue and went with her. Minerva ran, but the current whisked the girl along faster; long braids floating on either side of her small white face, the poor child was almost spent. “Hold on!” Minerva called, and prayed the girl could hear. “He’ll catch you in a minute.”
She slipped and nearly fell; Anne, on her heels, caught her and steadied her, then they both dashed on.
The bobbing rag doll the girl had become was swept around the bend, out of their sight. Gasping, Minerva ran faster; she and Anne rounded the bend in time to see Royce, sunk chest-deep even though he stood on a spit in the streambed, lean far to his right, then launch himself across, into the swiftly running current; it caught him in the same moment he caught the girl, hoisting her up onto his chest, then onto his right shoulder where her head was at least partly clear of the increasingly turbulent water.
Minerva slowed, her fingers rising to her lips as she took in what lay beyond the pair. The river started narrowing, funneling toward the gorge, the water tumbling and churning as it battered its way on.
There was only one spot, another spit, where the pair, whisked along, could be caught, one chance before the building pressure of the water swept them into the gorge and almost certain death. On the spit, Royce’s Varisey and Debraigh cousins were linking arms, forming a human chain, anchored by Henry and Arthur, the lightest, together on the bank. Each held on to one of Gregory’s arms. Gregory had his other arm linked with Rohan’s, who in turn was waiting for Gordon to link his arm with his, leaving Phillip at the end.
Minerva halted, put her hands about her mouth. “Quickly!” she screamed. “They’re almost there!”
Phillip looked, then shoved Gordon toward Rohan, grabbed one of Gordon’s arms, and waded into the stream.
The current swung away, around the spit, carrying Royce and his burden along the other side of the riverbed. Rohan yelled and the men all stretched…Phillip yelled to Gordon to hang on to his coat. As soon as he had, Phillip lunged out, stretching as far as he could, reaching out.
Just as it seemed the pair would be lost, Royce’s arm lashed out of the water-and connected with Phillip’s. They both gripped.
“Hold hard!” Phillip yelled.
The dragging weight-not just of Royce and the girl, but now Phillip as well, all drenched and sodden-tested the other men. Muscles bunched, locked. Henry’s and Arthur’s feet shifted; they both leaned back, faces grim and set as they hauled their kinsmen in.
Then it was over. Royce and Phillip, swung downstream and in toward the bank, got their feet under them.
Royce stood, breathing hard, then, shaking his head like a dog, he hoisted the girl free of the water, and holding her to his chest, walked, slowly and carefully, across the rocky riverbed. Phillip staggered up, then followed alongside. He reached over and lifted the girl’s hair from her face, tapped her cheek-and she coughed. Weakly at first, but when Royce reached the bank and laid her on her side, she retched, coughed hard, then started to cry.