Kayla narrowed her eyes. "You wait until you can do that to us, don’t you?"
Badger jerked a thumb towards his barrel chest, his light eyes going round and conveying a devastating innocence. "Who me?"
The gesture was achingly familiar, even to Kayla, who blushed at the man’s dead-on imitation. "Very funny," she grumbled petulantly.
Liv couldn’t help but join in Badger’s laughter. She liked Badger more every time she saw him and was already feeling a sense of loss over their upcoming departure.
Badger’s gaze softened as it landed on Liv.
I’ll miss you too, lass.
"We’re closed to the public because we have a large private tour going on today. At this very moment, Sylla is trying to convince twenty-five Norwegian housewives that they are in dire need of pounds and pounds of shortbread."
"Ooo." Liv’s eyes glazed over with hedonistic desire and Kayla stepped between the smaller woman and Badger before the blonde woman could bankrupt them both by ordering another huge quantity of the tasty dessert.
"Are you free today?" Kayla inquired, an eyebrow lifting slightly.
"I just might be." Badger crossed his arms over his chest. "But it would take the right offer to keep me from spending my afternoon sneaking up behind Viking tourists and scaring them as they walk through the halls of Cobb Manor."
Liv scratched her jaw as she recalled the night before. "That sort of thing
can
be… err… interesting."
Badger laughed, low and deep, his entire body shaking with delight. "Indeed it can, girl. So," he refocused on Kayla, "back to hear more of Faylinn and Bridget, I take it?"
"We are."
"You ride?"
"We do."
Badger nodded. "Good."
Liv watched them both in wonder, amazed that they’d planned their entire afternoon in less than twenty words between them.
The trio strode around the manor towards the stables. Badger pointed towards the door with a thick finger. "Pick your mounts, ladies. They’re all bonny boys with lovely spirits. I’ll be right back."
The stable smelled of fresh hay and rain and Kayla greedily drew in a deep breath of the comforting scent, deciding on the spot that the best place to hole up and study the history they’d found on Cobb Island would be her grandmother’s ranch in West Virginia. "Liv?"
"Absolutely."
Kayla grinned. "I’ll call Granny tonight."
* * *
Liv selected a ginger gelding, whose long mane was a shiny coal-black. She led him over to Kayla who had just settled a saddle blanket on a muddy-colored stallion with gray socks. She scratched her horse’s nose. "Aren’t you pretty?" The animal whinnied loudly.
"Thanks." Kayla smirked. "You smell great."
"I was talking to the horse, ghostbuster."
"So was I. Ouch! Ouch!" Kayla started laughing as she ducked Liv’s hands.
"Oh! I see I got here just in time." Badger walked in leading a white mare, speckled with black spots, behind him.
Liv hands froze.
Kayla smiled, assuming Badger was going to help her with her feisty partner, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Badger plopped down on a bale of hay. "Carry on, lass. Now I’ve got a better view."
Kayla sneered at him. "Thanks, a lot, you old f— Ouch!"
When Liv was finished she made a show of dusting off her hands. "We’re just about ready here, Badger. As soon as Kayla stops dawdling we’ll be good to go."
Kayla’s mouth dropped open. "Bu—"
"Hurry up, Kayla. There’s rain coming in again tonight and I don’t want to be caught in it." Letting go of the reins in his hand, he marched over to where several saddles were hung on the wall and hefted one up. When he got close to Liv and Kayla’s horses, however, they began to dance nervously and snort.
"Wow." Liv got a good hold of her mount, afraid he’d rear. "They don’t like you much, do they?"
"I suppose not." Badger narrowed his eyes at the beasts, ignoring Kayla’s very interested stare. "Snobby things. Think they’re better bred than my own bonny girl." He handed the saddle to Kayla and their eyes met and held for a long moment. He quirked an eyebrow at her, but she held her tongue as he padded back to his waiting horse. The mare pressed her nose to his chest affectionately. "I don’t keep her inside with the others, I let her graze wild out back."
"Kayla?" Liv couldn’t help but notice the curious look on her friend’s face.
The tall woman snapped out of her trance and smiled at Liv. "Ready?"
They all led the animals outside, and Badger stuck his foot in the stirrup. "You might want to turn your heads, lasses."
"So we don’t see you tumble off into that puddle there?" Kayla chuckled and pointed to the ground.
"Suit yourself." Badger flipped his muscular leg over the powerful animal’s back and the gusty breeze caught his kilt, flipping it up against his back.
"Oh, good Lord." Liv covered her eyes with both hands, feeling almost lightheaded as blood rushed to her head. She opened her fingers to find Kayla staring. "Kayla!" she admonished, horrified.
Kayla turned her head slowly. "What?"
"Give the man some privacy!"
"What are you talking about? I’m blind! I’ll never see another damn thing as long as I live!"
Liv dissolved into laughter at the indignant look that swept across Badger’s creased face, glad that her lover had finally scored a point. But Kayla was right. That
was
the whitest ass Liv had ever seen. "Full moon over Scotland."
"You should have warned us to bring sunglasses," Kayla continued blithely.
"I’ve had no complaints before!" He snorted grumpily and gave his mare a swift kick, sending her galloping across the grass.
Laughing so hard they had trouble getting into their saddles, Liv and Kayla headed out in chase of a very crabby, white-haired storyteller.
* * *
It took them a while to catch Badger, who’d galloped over the closest hill, but soon they were riding slowly through the tall, blowing grass.
"What else is it you’d like to know of the story? There’s a lifetime to tell, and if I know it, I’ll share it with you freely."
"Bridget’s arm," Liv began. "Did it ever heal right?"
Badger blew out a breath. "Aye. It healed. I don’t believe it was ever like it was before she tangled with the cliff on Cobb Island. But she could use it well enough. And that was more than she’d had a right to hope for."
Liv said a little prayer of thanks.
Good for you, Bridget.
"The baby?" Kayla asked, shielding her eyes from the sun as she glanced sideways at her companions.
"I was planning on spinnin’ that particular yarn as it’s one of my favorites. Nothin’ else?" Badger shifted in his saddle and smiled at Liv.
Liv cleared her throat softly. There was just one more little thing. "Did they ever… um… you know?"
Kayla’s eyes widened. "Liv!"
"Well, I wanna know!"
Badger chuckled softly and pulled out his pipe, letting his horse wander where she would. "So you want to hear
that
tale, do you?"
"Yup. And so does she." Liv gestured towards Kayla with her chin. "Don’t you dare say differently, Kayla Redding. You were talking about this very thing just the other night."
Kayla bit her lip and shot Liv a withering glare. "Big mouth."
Badger grinned inwardly. These two were simply perfect together. "Well, as you can imagine, it’s not a story that I would normally pass along. Though I do know it, mainly because Faylinn and Bridget are sort of… well, they were very colorful characters in a very conventional family. Among their own kin, they weren’t shy about the love they shared. And because they were both women, how it was that they came together was something asked over the years and answered with surprising candor or a smack in the back of the head…" Badger’s blue eyes twinkled. "Depending, of course, on whether you asked Bridget or Faylinn."
Kayla lifted a sardonic eyebrow. "Would the one who couldn’t keep her smacking hands to herself happen to be… oh, I don’t know." She tapped her chin with her index finger and pretended to ponder. "Blonde?"
Liv stuck out her tongue.
* * *
Virginia (Mainland)
March, 1691
It was an early spring and wildflowers covered the hilly Virginia countryside, filling the air with the fragrant scent of Azaleas, Snapdragons, and Oxeye Daisies.
Will and Bridget had retrieved Apollo from Cobb Island nearly a month ago, and the two mares they’d purchased several weeks back were happily munching on the thick, damp carpet of spring grass behind the stable. The mares had both been the recipients of Apollo’s romantic attentions, though the stallion appeared to have a preference for the butter-colored mare over her chestnut cousin. It was, however, too soon to know if they would be expecting foals next February.
Faylinn paused in her work in the garden to stretch her tired back. She leaned her hoe against the wheelbarrow and sighed, blocking the sun with the back of her hand and looking towards the west, the direction she expected to see Will and Bridget coming from.
"Don’t worry so much, Faylinn," Katie admonished, walking over to the well and lowering the bucket into the cold water at the bottom. "They’ll be back today."
Faylinn sighed and ambled over to Katie, who looked down at her belly and smiled.
"Your little one is growing."
Faylinn followed Katie’s gaze to her belly and she laughed. "He’s going to be a big one, I’m afraid."
"Please," Katie scoffed. "I was twice your size with my boy Richard." Will and Katie’s only child had taken ill as a teenager and died last summer, just before his seventeenth birthday, and the Beynon’s spoke of the lad often. "You’re barely showing at all."
"You’re not a very good liar, Katie!" Faylinn grinned, unconsciously rubbing her rounded belly as she spoke. "No matter how big I am, it’ll only get worse. I still have two months to go."
The bucket splashed into the water. "True." Katie made a face. "You’ve got the hardest months yet to come."
Faylinn groaned in remembrance as she thought of her previous pregnancy.
The heavy-set woman finished reeling up the water bucket and shoved a tin dipper into it. "Here." She passed the overflowing dipper to Faylinn. "It’s cool but the sun is bright. You can’t forget to drink in
your condition
," she teased.
Mossy-green eyes rolled, their gold flecks glinting in the mid-day sun. "Not you too! Bridget talked to you before they left, didn’t she?" Faylinn accused with a mock-glare.
"Oh, that she did!" Katie took back the dipper and took a long, satisfying drink. Breaking up the soil each spring was always the hardest part of gardening. "There’s a long list of things that you’re not supposed to be doing in your delicate state, and they include most everything except sitting on your arse and drinking lemonade."
Both women burst out laughing. They were used to Bridget and Will’s tendency to hover over the blonde to make sure that she wasn’t taxing herself. But it was still a source of amusement between them.
"I see." Faylinn sighed. "And am I allowed to continue with your reading lessons."
Katie nodded gravely. "Only if I hold the Bible. It might be too heavy for one such as yourself."
Faylinn gestured wildly as she spoke. "Did you finally set her straight and tell her that I don’t need to be pampered like a newborn?"
"I most certainly did not," Katie huffed. "And take away your chance to be doted on like a queen? Bah! I just shook my head and smiled." She demonstrated a completely insincere smile that caused Faylinn to be glad she hadn’t lost any teeth.
Faylinn cocked her head to the side and listened. "Katie, do you—?"
Just then, Will and Bridget appeared at the top of the hill, riding in the Beynon’s small, mule-drawn cart.
"Bridget!" Faylinn waved.
Bridget’s smile was visible from the garden and she waved back. She jumped out of the moving, rickety cart, and walked beside it, rooting through the tools in the back until she came up with a large leather saddlebag, which she threw over one shoulder.
"Why don’t you—?" Katie stopped when she realized she was talking to thin air. Faylinn was already making her way across the homestead as quickly as her blossoming belly would allow. "Why don’t you meet them and say hello?" she finished wryly, and leaned the dipper against the well.
Faylinn’s grin grew larger and larger the closer she got to Bridget, who looked fit and nearly back to normal. The tall woman had, by any measure, had a terrible winter. The re-breaking of her arm had led to a blood infection that had lasted for more than six weeks and had Faylinn at her wits’ end. Bridget had lost a shocking amount of weight and her skin looked pale compared to the rich, exotic color it had been when Faylinn first came to Cobb Island. But all that seemed to be in the past now as several weeks of good food and mild exercise had done Bridget a world of good. Faylinn couldn’t help but admire her lean, muscular build as she watched Bridget’s powerful gait speed her through the tall grass.