Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“What are ye doin’?” Arthur yelled, surprised by her outburst. “What are ye yellin’ for?”
The ducks, terrified by her sudden outburst, let out loud, panicked quacks. The sound of flapping filled the air as they propelled themselves into the sky.
Hundreds of birds, all taking flight at once in a bid to escape her. Feathers fell around them—soft, downy things slowly floating from the skies.
Marissa, however, paid him absolutely no mind. She was ducking, her hands flying up above her head as she tried to avoid the birds now flying overhead.
“I’m terrified of ducks!” she yelled, skidding behind his hulking form.
“Terrified of ducks?” he parroted. “Nay one is terrified of ducks!”
“I am,” Marissa protested.
She was cowering behind him, hunkering down as if to block herself entirely from their view.
They didn’t fly far. Apparently, the birds had grown accustomed to her yelling, and many of them fell back into the water, just a little bit farther away than they had been before. With a shake of his head, Arthur turned to face her.
Marissa was still hunkered down, her arms thrown over her head as if to shield herself from an attack that was sure to come any moment. She was shaking, he could see it in every part of her body.
“Ye look more terrified now than ye did when someone threw a knife at yer heart,” he admonished.
Grabbing her hands, he gave them a gentle tug, pulling her up. Marissa shrank back, her eyes wide and fearful as she gazed around him to the loch beyond and the ducks that were no doubt filling her line of sight.
“I was attacked by ducks as a child,” she explained in a shaky voice. “Nearly broke me nose with their terrible beaks. Absolutely foul creatures.”
She gave herself a shake as if a shiver had just run through her, before pointing to her face.
“I still have the scar to prove it.”
Arthur shook his head. “What are ye talkin’ about? There’s nay…”
But, sure enough, as he leaned forward, his eyes were drawn to a faint white line that ran across the bridge of her nose.
He hadn’t noticed it before. Granted, Arthur had not spent much time studying the small intricacies of Marissa’s nose. But even now that he knew it was there, it was still incredibly faint and hard to make out.
“That wee thing?” he scoffed, rolling his eyes when she nodded grimly. “That scar will disappear the moment the sun isnae shinin’ on it. Can hardly tell it’s there even under the bright mornin’ light.”
“That doesnae mean it doesnae still scare me,” she quipped, narrowing her eyes at him. “Why would ye bring me here? Did someone tell ye about me fear of ducks? Was it Cody? Did he put ye up to this?”
She was working herself into a frenzy, a whirlwind of emotions rolling off her. Arthur placed his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down.
“Nay one told me ye were afraid of ducks,” he said in a calm, even voice.
He bent over, bringing himself low enough that he could stare directly into her eyes.
“If they had told me,” he continued, “I wouldnae have brought ye here. At the very least, I wouldnae have brought ye here as a surprise.”
She glared at him, her eyes roving over his face. No doubt she was trying to determine if he was being truthful. Thankfully, for his sake, he was.
Arthur did not doubt that she would lose every last bit of her mind if she determined that he was lying. And that was not something that he wanted to deal with in the current moment.
“Well,” she said finally, “whether ye kenned or nae before ye brought me here, ye ken now. So, let’s leave. Get me away from these wretched things before they start tryin’ to gouge me eyes out.”
He was about to give in, about to tell her that they could walk to a quieter part of the loch, one that was guaranteed to be duck-free, until a different idea occurred to him.
“Mayhap we can use this,” he said in a conspiratorial tone. “What if we tried to rid ye of yer fear of ducks?”
Immediately, Marissa began shaking her head, raising her hands in the air as she started to back away from him.
“Nay.” Her voice shook as she spoke. “I dinnae want to get over me fear. I’ve been fine with keepin’ a good distance from any and all ducks for me entire life.
And I’ll be fine to keep doin’ it. Geese, too.
They all get plenty of distance from me.
They dinnae bother me, and I dinnae bother them. It’s worked for us this long.”
It was Arthur’s turn to shake his head. He swept his hands wide, gesturing to the hundreds of ducks that surrounded them.
“That isnae a choice here,” he said. “Because this happens every year. I dinnae ken why, but once a year, hundreds if nae thousands of ducks come to this loch. They call it home for a few weeks, fillin’ the banks with their feathers. Swimmin’ and buildin’ their nests. It’s beautiful.”
She snorted a laugh. “It’s anythin’ but beautiful.” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, which he chose to ignore.
“Imagine it,” he continued as if she had not spoken.
He kept his tone gentle, just as he would if he was dealing with a hurt or frightened animal. Which, to be fair, was very much what Marissa reminded him of at that moment.
All of her muscles were tense, and she was clearly ready to run at a moment’s notice.
“We could have a picnic here when the ducks come. We could bring them stale bread, throw it out to them, and feed them like me maither and I used to do. We could do it with yer family. With our bairns.”
At the mention of their future children, Marissa’s face twitched.
“Do ye want them to be afraid of ducks?” he asked, sensing that he might be getting through to her.
Her eyes were softening. She still looked poised to run at any moment, but she was looking less like she was about to jump out of her skin.
“Do ye want to pass yer fears down to our bairns?” he prodded again. “Imagine our daughter or son bein’ terrified to come down to the loch they love, just because at this time of year, it’s home to a few birds.”
“A few.” Marissa choked out a laugh. “This is much more than a few.”
Arthur shrugged one shoulder as if the discrepancy in number didn’t mean anything at all.
“They willnae harm ye,” he assured her. “Remember, I told ye that I would protect ye. That includes birds and all wildlife as well.”
He stopped speaking, knowing that he’d said all that he could. It would be up to Marissa to decide if she truly trusted him to make good on his promise to protect her. And he was willing to give her all the time she needed.
Finally, after quite a bit of her glaring as she considered his words, she gave him a quick, terse nod.
Heaving a sigh of relief, he extended his hand toward her. She took it, accepting his help as he slowly guided her down toward the shore.
A few ducks had made their way back onto the rocks and the sand. They quacked merrily at them as they approached.
Marissa clung tightly to him. The closer they got to the water, and subsequently the birds, the more her hand grew clammy with sweat. But he did not let go.
“It’s all right,” he murmured to her. “It’s goin’ to be all right.”
A few ducks flapped their wings as they approached, their rubbery feet slapping against the sand as they waddled out of their way. But other than that, they seemed to pay them no mind other than cocking their heads at them curiously.
Arthur guided her to the water’s edge. The gentle lapping of the water just beneath their boots helped to drown out a little of the squawking. Slow and rhythmic.
“Now, look at me,” he commanded.
Thankfully, Marissa seemed too fearful of the ducks surrounding them to argue back. Her gaze snapped to his.
Fear still lingered in the depths of her gaze, as clear as the sky was blue, but there was something else there as well.
Trust.
She was trusting him to stay true to his word, to protect her. And to help her.
Pride bubbled low in his belly.
“Breathe with me,” he said, before demonstrating to her exactly what he meant.
Arthur made a big show of taking a deep breath through his nose. He allowed it to puff up his chest, before holding it for a few seconds and blowing it out through his mouth.
He did this a few times, his eyes pleading with Marissa to join in. After the third large, measured breath, she did exactly that.
He nodded as she matched him breath for breath, before pausing to explain.
“This is what I have me men do,” he admitted.
For a moment, she stopped the breathing exercise to listen to him, but he shook his head and motioned for her to keep going.
“When they’re terrified on the battlefield,” he continued, “or when I need to keep them calm for the healers. Men who have just witnessed or done somethin’ terrible for the sake of the clan, and who have gone a wee barmy because of it. Sometimes it helps.”
Marissa nodded, continuing the breathing exercise. But her muscles were still so tense that she seemed ready to break out into a run. He needed something else, something that would distract her and keep her focused on him and the exercise.
Recalling her words from the night before, Arthur began speaking once more.