Malcolm says goodbye

“Malcolm!” Iylaine ran into the hall looking both surprised and delighted.

“Hallo, Baby.”

She stopped just short of him and clasped her hands modestly, obviously intending to compose herself. “I didn’t think you would come,” she said calmly.

“Not come and say goodbye?” he scoffed.

“But it’s so late.”

“I had things to prepare,” he said importantly.

“My Da already said goodbye and left for the castle.”

“He did? I didn’t see him.”

“Perhaps he rode over the downs.”

“So did I.”

“Oh,” she said, wrinkling her pretty nose.

Malcolm noted this interesting fact, and then asked, “Listen, Baby – you didn’t truly think I wouldn’t say goodbye to you, did you?”

“But it was so late.”

“Would that stop me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Were you sad?”

“Aye.”

“Oh.” That had been easier than he had thought. Too easy. “Will you miss me?”

“Of course.”

“Oh.” That too. “I shall miss you. But I shall be home soon. And I told Bertie-​​boy to keep an eye on you.”

“He would anyway. My Da already asked.”

“Oh!” He wasn’t sure he liked that. “Well, I wish you could come with us this year.”

“You do?”

“Of course! Then you could meet my mother, and my sisters and my little brother Lulach. And you could meet old Aed, and he would finally believe me when I tell him that my cousin is an elf.”

“Perhaps they wouldn’t like me.”

“I should like to know why not!”

“Because I am an elf.”

“Our people aren’t like the people here. They aren’t afraid of elves and pixies and fairies. They will all like you. And I can show you all the things I told you about – the black hill, and the caves, and the oak tree my grandfather’s pagan grandfather planted, and the standing stones. And we could go by the sea, and you could finally see it.”

“Oh, no,” Iylaine shuddered. “I shouldn’t like that.”

“Why not?”

“All that water!”

He laughed. “Afraid to get your skirts wet? There’s plenty enough for that!” He knew that the only thing she hated more than wet skirts was getting water on her face.

“It’s horrible,” she scowled. “I shall never go if we must go by the sea.”

“We needn’t, but it’s nice in the summer because there aren’t any biting bugs along the shore. It’s something, to camp at the shore and sleep with the sound of the sea in your ears.”

“Oh, no, oh, no,” she whimpered, as Emma did when she saw a spider. “What if the sea comes up and covers you, and drowns you?”

“We aren’t so silly as to camp that close.”

“I shan’t even think about it,” she said, and she wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered again.

“Well, never mind about the sea, Baby. I can swim, anyway. Oh, my brother asked me to say goodbye to you for him.”

She wrinkled her nose again. That he liked. “You may thank him, and say goodbye for me,” she said coolly.

“Don’t you like my brother?”

“I think he is a very impertinent boy, but he is my cousin, so I must like him.”

“He thinks you are very pretty,” Malcolm could not resist saying.

“That is what I mean by impertinent.”

He laughed. “You have it backwards, Baby. That is polite. Impertinent is when I call you clabbercheeks.”

“Beetlebrain!”

“That’s impertinent.”

“Very well,” she said primly. “I think your brother is a polite boy, but I don’t like him any better for it.”

“You’re a backwards girl,” he grinned.

“I wish you could stay,” she sighed, suddenly wistful, as she so often was. One always noticed the dark shadows around her eyes then.

“You do?” he asked.

“I wish big Malcolm could stay. My Da has been so merry since he came, and so nice, and he doesn’t stay out late.”

“Oh.”

Malcolm was a little disappointed that it was not for his own sake that she wished they would stay, and all the more so since he didn’t believe that his cousin’s miraculous reappearance had much to do with Egelric’s change of mood.

He had nearly stumbled over Egelric and some foreign lady in the woods on Midsummer Eve, and while it was not the first time he had come across his cousin with one of his pets, it was the first time he had heard him speaking utter nonsense with her and giggling like a girl. Thus Malcolm had his own ideas about what had effected the change in his cousin, but naturally it was far too soon to speak of them. It was a great frustration to him that he had so far been unable to find a lady in the valley who spoke with such an accent. He was sorry he hadn’t been able to see the two of them, but the woman seemed to have heard him and he had had to hurry on.

“But I think he will still be the same after he returns,” he said, hoping to reassure her.

“Truly? Why?”

“Just a feeling,” he said with a wink.

“Oh, Malcolm, I hope so!” she gushed. “Your feelings are almost always true!”