The Secret of Stavewood (Stavewood Saga Book 4) (7 page)

Thirteen

     
A
fter nearly an hour with no tug on the line, Louisa stepped out onto the rocks and lowered her hook in the water once again. Tiny drops of misty rain seemed to gently touch the surface of the lake, creating symmetric circles rippling over the water. The air was damp and still. 

      “What if nothing happens? How do we catch them if they don’t want to be caught?” she asked quietly. She felt thoughtful and serene, completely relaxed, surrounded by the breathtaking landscape fading into the mist. She looked at Luc beside her, his long legs stretched out on the damp grass. Even beneath a dreary sky it seemed perfect and dreamlike.

      “Then we come back another day. The term is,
the fish are not biting
.” Luc noticed a slight tug on his line, and then another. “Hold on, here we go.”

      Louisa looked back over her shoulder and stepped carefully over the wet rocks.

      “That’s it!” Luc pulled a golden walleye from the deep water of the lake. The fish flapped and squirmed but Luc caught it easily in his big hand and grinned broadly. “That’s what I wanted to see,” he said.

      Louisa looked at his catch. It seemed magical to her. She remembered her father and brother returning from their trips, excited over what they had caught. Now she understood and she wanted a fish of her own. She stepped back over the rocks and dropped her line into the water once more.

      Soon Luc caught another, and then another. Louisa wondered if maybe there was something he had forgotten to tell her and she watched him closely. She saw him jiggle his line a bit and then pull in yet another fish. Louisa tugged gently on her line, then released it. Nothing. She tried again. Suddenly she felt a hard pull on the pole.

      “Oh my!” she squealed. “I’ve got one!”

      “Pull it in easy,” Luc instructed. “Don’t try to bring it in too fast.”

      Louisa drew back on her pole gently at first but then, when she became impatient, she jerked the pole hard, back over her shoulder. Her line snapped and her feet slipped out from underneath her. In one, swift movement Louisa slid down the muddy bank and, with a splash, found herself sitting waist deep in the murky water.

      Luc was at her side immediately but once he saw that she was planted firmly in the mud and in no danger, he stood over her laughing.

      “Heavens,” Louisa gasped, looking up at him. “Oh, so you think this is funny?” Despite her situation she found herself fighting to suppress a smile of her own.

      Louisa lunged at him and wrapped her arms around his legs as tightly as she could. He lost his balance as his knees buckled and he hit the water with a loud splash. Mud splattered up over Louisa and she sputtered, wiping her hands over her face.

      Luc sat in the mire looking at her and started to laugh all over again. “I expect that did not go the way you planned,” he said.

      Louisa laughed along with him and tried to pull herself from the oozing sludge but found that she was stuck fast.

      He got to his feet awkwardly and took her hand, pulling her upright. Louisa stepped out into the lake a few feet and splashed fresh water over her face. He stood watching her, smiling as she walked back to him.

      “Having fun now?” he asked.

      Louisa looked down at her mud covered body.   

     “Stop grinning.”

     “Grinning? Why, I wouldn’t think of it.” With an exaggerated effort he pretended to scowl.

      Her light dress clung to her waist and legs. Her wet hair dripped into her eyes. Louisa Elgerson was beautiful in the soft morning light, alive and inviting and covered in mud.

      “Not even a smirk!” Louisa leaned close to him, her face inches from his.

      “No, of course not,” he said.

      Louisa smiled slowly as she saw Luc’s grin begin to reappear. She tried to step away from him but her foot sunk into the mud.

      “That’s enough of that.” Luc swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bank. He set her onto her feet and Louisa looked up into his warm brown eyes, holding her breath. He turned his face, bent close to her and kissed her cheek. Louisa let out her breath. She was certain he had thought about kissing her,
really
kissing her, but he had not. She wondered why he had stopped.

      “Congratulations, Sherlock,” he said, his expression genuinely serious. “Now you have really caught… something.” Luc stopped himself from saying what he was suddenly feeling in his heart.

      “What do you mean?” Louisa searched his face.

      “Nothing,” he said. “You fished, that’s all.” Luc stepped away and began gathering his poles.

      Louisa stood in the soft grass watching him. What had he meant? She was certain she had missed something because she hadn’t caught a single fish.

      “Luc…” She stepped up close to him and picked up his pail of worms. “Thank you. I had fun.”

      “You look like you had fun.” He looked her over, covered in mud, and chuckled, shaking his head.

      Louisa thought she ought to be completely embarrassed, mortified that she had fallen into the lake, but she wasn’t. Instead she felt wonderfully free and alive.

     “It was perfect. I like fishing.” She smiled openly. “In fact, I love it!”

      Luc laughed. “Then we’ll do it again.”

      Louisa brushed what mud she could from her arms and legs and followed him to the horse.

      “I want to clean these here,” he said, producing a massive hunting knife from the saddlebag.

      Louisa watched closely as he set his fish onto a flat rock. “Pay attention,” he said. “This is part of fishing too.

      “First you take his cheeks. You don’t do this with all fish, but on a walleye it’s the best part.”

      She watched him cut along the cheekbone and pull away a chunk of pink meat about the size of a sea scallop. He flipped the fish over and did the same with the other cheek. Then he cut along the backbone on either side of the back fin.

      “Hear that?” he asked as the knife made a zipping sound along the spine of the fish.

      “Are those his bones?” Louisa shuddered.

      “Yep, you can hear them against the knife.” He cut away the rib cage, freeing the fillets and set them onto the rock.

      “Your turn.” Luc offered Louisa the knife.

      She took it from him reverently and tried to concentrate on the task. She’d learned long ago not to whine or squeal like many of the other girls did when attempting a task like this. Acting too feminine could get you excluded from the things the men liked to do. She held her breath as the knife hit the fish’s backbone.

      Luc watched her closely, studying her delicate complexion in the soft light of the rainy day. Her hair was wet and pushed back from her face, her features fine and feminine. Louisa was not at all like any other woman he had seen fishing. Her brows were arched and defined on her smooth forehead and her lips were a soft shade of pink. Louisa Elgerson was spunky and beautiful. He forced himself to look away.

      “Is that good?” She looked up at him.

      “Good job,” he said. “Let’s go back.”

      She wasn’t sure why, but she felt as if she had done something wrong.

Fourteen

     
T
hey stood beside Avalanche as Luc attached the poles and a brace of cleaned fish.

      “Are you angry with me?” Louisa spoke up.

      “No, not at all.” He looked at her curiously. “Why would you think that?”

      “A few minutes ago you seemed so serious. I really did have fun today. I don’t even care about all this mud.”

      Luc could not suppress a laugh. His own backside was caked in mud, but Louisa was a dreary brown from head to toe. Her sunny yellow dress was completely covered and her shoulders were streaked with dirt.

      “That’s better.” Louisa smiled when she heard his deep laugh.

      “Avalanche is going to be a mess,” Luc said, as he grabbed Louisa by the waist and deposited her onto the horse’s back.

      “Oh, yuck!” she squealed as she plopped down onto her wet dress.

      “I’m not much better.” Luc set his foot in the stirrup and leapt up in front of her. His broad back pressed into her.

      Louisa could not contain herself and began laughing uncontrollably. Both of his shoulders were completely covered in a thick layer of mud that shook as he laughed heartily in front of her.

      “Oh, I don’t care!” Louisa threw her arms around Luc’s waist as he kicked the horse to a fast run.

      Louisa was ecstatic and she laughed until her sides hurt. They raced across the fields and along the road in a steady rain. At last she had gone fishing and she’d had a wonderful time. Luc was funny and easy, like Mark had been so many years ago. But Luc was not her brother, nor was he like any of the men she had met at home. There was something in his eyes she did not recognize. Louisa felt free and more comfortable with Luc than she had with anyone else in a long time.

      Luc rode well and she felt her hair drying in the wind. His muscles flexed as she pressed up against him. He smelled manly and muddy and familiar, like home. As they turned off the road into the yard at Stavewood, Louisa rose up and put her lips to his ear.

      “Keep going,” she said.

      Luc leaned forward in the saddle and Louisa clung to his waist as he drove Avalanche faster down the road alongside an open field.

      She closed her eyes and imagined they were flying, lost together in the haze of the heavens where no one could find them. The beautiful horse beneath them had the wings of Pegasus and they were above the clouds. She was spontaneous and free and had no deadlines. There was no one to answer to but herself. She leaned into Luc’s back and, though the rain began to fall harder, she could not imagine a more perfect day.

      The shower felt cold on Louisa’s back and it splashed on Luc’s shoulders. She turned her face and pressed her cheek against him, watching the rain sparkling magically as it fell into the meadow alongside them. Suddenly Louisa felt a shiver run up her spine. She squinted her eyes, distracted by what looked like a man on horseback just at the line of trees across the field at the other side. As she watched, he appeared to turn his horse and move slowly into the woods. Then he was gone. Louisa tightened her arms around Luc’s waist.

      Luc slowed the horse and Louisa wiped the rain from her face.

      “Did you see that?” she called out, pointing across the field.

      “No. What did you see?” Luc turned in the saddle and looked at her over his shoulder. He was completely drenched. The rain slowed, tapering off to a light shower.

      “I’m not sure, but I think I saw a rider.”

      Luc slid from the horse’s back and took a few steps into the meadow, scanning the trees where she had pointed. “What did he look like?”

      “He was all in black. Black hat with a wide brim and a black poncho all shiny in the rain. A big, black horse, too.” Louisa strained her eyes but couldn’t see anything moving. “Pretty creepy.”

      “Well, there’s no one there now,” Luc announced. He stood beside the horse looking up at her.

      Louisa told herself that what she had probably seen was just a passerby caught in the rain. She smiled and reached down to Luc, pushing his hair from his forehead.

      “That was amazing!” she giggled. “Perfectly amazing! Thank you for that, Luc.” She touched his cheek and smiled at him fondly. “I don’t care if I catch my death of cold or if anyone tells me how irresponsible I am to be out riding in the rain. I’m having a wonderful time.”

      Louisa leaned from the saddle and Luc took her by the waist and lowered her gently. She was completely drenched but most of the mud had been rinsed away. Her dress clung to her, revealing every curve of her body and Luc Almquist caught his breath. She was as beautiful as a statue, perfectly carved and exquisitely flawless. As if on cue, the rain stopped, the sun peeked through the clouds and her wet skin glistened. Her exuberance was engaging and her enthusiasm was contagious. Until now he’d known two kinds of women in his life. There were the ones who could not stand to have their hair or clothing mussed in any way at all. And then there were the tomboys who wouldn’t be caught dead in a dress. Louisa Elgerson was something else entirely. She was completely feminine in the way she tiptoed about, rivulets of rain dripping along her smooth legs, uninhibited and spontaneous.

      “This is magnificent!” Louisa looked up and saw the sparkle in his eye. She caught her breath and tried to slow her frantic breathing.

      “Yes, magnificent,” he agreed, his voice low.

      Louisa looked down at herself and realized that her dress was barely decent. She looked up into his eyes and felt her pulse quicken.

      “Don’t think badly of me,” she said softly. “I don’t do this kind of thing often. Not ever in fact. I just felt so amazing and you’re so easy to be with…” her voice trailed off.

      “I’ve ridden in the rain before but always alone. Not like this,” he said.

      Louisa saw him swallow hard.

      “Thank you. It was perfect. Really,” she said softly.

      Luc looked at her standing in her clinging dress. “Let’s get you home.”

      He set his foot in the stirrup, flung a long leg over Avalanche’s back and offered his hand to pull her up behind him. The sun broke through the clouds and streamed through the trees around them.

      Louisa mounted the horse behind him and he turned and kicked him into a fast run. She held fast to Luc and called out.

      “I love fishing!” she announced to the woodlands.

      Luc’s face spread into a broad smile and Louisa could feel him laughing in her arms.