“This need I have to put that smile on your face,” he said, looking angry at himself, and urged both horses to turn back.
When he found a tree stump that he deemed good enough to be used as a mounting block, they both got off their horses and continued on foot, stopping to look at mushrooms and flowers and birds and trees and whatever else caught Elizabeth’s eye as she walked.
“And they truly know which plants are bad for them? Are you jesting with me?”
“I am not,” Colin said vehemently. “Horses are extremely intelligent animals,” he said as he stroked Bruiser’s mane.
“I wonder what it must have been like for those horses at Peterloo,” she said absent-mindedly, and only a few steps later realised that Colin was no longer next to her.
“What do you mean?” she heard his voice behind her, so she turned around to look at him.
“I mean, they are so intelligent and kind, can you imagine how awful it must have been for them to be forced to go into the crowd and trample those people?”
Colin said nothing for a moment, his face paler than usual, then he shook his head slightly and spoke, “Horses have always been used in wars.”
“Doesn’t mean they enjoy it,” she countered.
“I must confess I’ve never considered their feelings on the matter.”
She shrugged, then pointed her chin at a tree. “Why is that tree alone over there?”
“That’s Kett’s Oak,” he told her.
“Why does it have a name?”
“That tree is said to be over 200 years old.”
“That cannot be!” Elizabeth exclaimed as she stared at the mighty tree that stood alone, towering (and, it seemed to her,watching) over the rest of the forest. For the second time that day, she felt an overwhelming sense of peace.
She stood before the tree and felt in her bones that they had both come from the same source, that they were bound by a strange kind of kinship on this Earth, and, as bizarre as it was, she was comforted by the fact that the tree had been alive long before her birth and would most likely stay alive long after her death.
All my worries are small and insignificant,she thought as she inhaled deeply with her eyes closed.The world is so much bigger than I am.
She opened her eyes and found her husband staring at her. She looked away, embarrassed, and started walking again.
Ten minutes later, Elizabeth felt something wet on her cheek. Before she could understand what was happening, an abundant summer rain started drenching everything in sight.
“Run to the cabin,” Colin urged as he took the reins from her hand and jumped on Bruiser. “I’ll tether the horses and join you as soon as I can.”
Although the cabin was fairly close by, Lizzie’s entire attire was soaking wet by the time she reached it. The rain had been so fast and so heavy that not even the trees could provide much cover. Colin came in a moment later.
“Are you alright?” he asked as he looked her over. “You need to disrobe immediately, else you’ll catch a cold.”
He looked around the room, panicking more than Lizzie felt was necessary, then knelt before the fireplace and attempted to start a fire.
Had he ever needed to start a fire on his own?She wondered.
“I don’t know where anything is, Colin. May I start the fire, and you find us some clothes or a coverlet?”
Elizabeth was careful not to smile at his relief when he stood up. When he came back with a pile of rugs, blankets, and coverlets, she had successfully warmed the room. There was some sort of animal skin in front of the fireplace, and that is where her husband chose to dump his loot.
“Disrobe.”
“We’re in someone else’s cabin in the middle of the forest. What if someone comes in?”
“I locked the door. Elizabeth, you’ll catch a cold,” he urged again, more sternly this time, so, with a sigh, she wrapped herself in one of the blankets and started disrobing and handing him her clothes layer by layer so he could arrange them on the chairs he’d pulled closer to the fire.
He then turned his back to her and took his own clothes off, wrapping a blanket around his hips when he was done.
