Chapter Twenty-Eight
From her small cottage on the hillside, Clova could hear the shouts ringing through the village.
Cam and Isadora had returned.
But she didn’t rush to greet them as everyone else appeared to be doing.
She sat by her hearth, smelling her weeds, feeling both joy and melancholy.
She was glad they had returned, two young people who would soon go on to marry, but her mood was triggered by that envy she’d spoken of to Cam, envy that the man belonged to Isadora.
The man who looked just like her Nikolaus.
It was true that she’d been trying to make Cam into Nikolaus since he’d first arrived in Auchnacree. In her mind, Clova saw the opportunity to relive the happiest time of her life. But she had only been fooling herself. She’d known that all along but had been unwilling to face it.
Cam belonged to Isadora.
They would marry and have children, something she’d never done.
Strangely enough, she never regretted not marrying.
She only regretted not marrying Nikolaus.
And she deeply regretted listening to her father those decades ago when he told her never to see Nikolaus again.
She wished that she’d been brave like Isadora in holding on to the one thing she loved in life.
In truth, the time had passed for her regrets. She was old now and soon, her life would be no more. She wondered if Nikolaus would remember her when they met again in heaven. She hoped so. She was looking forward to being with the man in death as she couldn’t be in life.
For her and Nikolaus, that was the only option.
Clova dozed off as she sat by the fire and the excitement in the village seemed to quiet.
Her wandering mind began to dream of the mushrooms that grew high up in the mountains, in the crags, mushrooms she had liked to harvest when she’d been young and spry.
Her dreams of mushrooms were interrupted by a knock on her door. Her eyes popped open.
“What’s wanting?” she demanded.
The door latch lifted and Cam stepped in. He was dirty and battered, but he had the most remarkable smile on his face. Clova perked up.
“It’s ye,” she said. “So ye’ve returned, have ye? Someone told me ye went tae Kirkburn Castle tae find Issie.”
Cam nodded. “I did,” he said. “A Lindsay patrol had taken her and a few other women. But I brought them all back.”
Clova didn’t sense that it had been trip that had almost cost him everything; he was speaking of it as if it hadn’t been a difficult thing at all. Perhaps it was the way he was smiling at her that gave her that impression, but it occurred to her that there was something odd in that smile.
“Ye’re smiling quite a bit for a man who looks like he’s been chewed up and spit out,” she said. “What has ye so happy? Could it be because ye’re glad tae see me?”
Cam laughed softly. “I’m always glad tae see ye, ye shameless flirt,” he said, watching her flash her yellow teeth. “I’m happy because I found something else at Kirkburn Castle, something I think ye’ll want tae see.”
“What in the world could Kirkburn have for me?”
Cam went to her and took the smoking weeds out of her hand, setting them aside. “Come with me,” he said softly.
Intrigued, Clova stood up, clutching his arm tightly. “Where are we going?”
“Just tae yer door. Issie is bringing someone for ye tae see.”
Curious, Clova went with him to the door of her cottage. It was nearly sundown, with splashes of purple on the western horizon as the sun dipped low, but she could see Isadora heading up the hill toward them with a tall, unkempt man on her arm.
“Who’s that?” Clova asked.
Cam patted her hand as it gripped his arm.
“Clova, when ye asked me if my grandfather had passed, at the time, I thought he had,” he said gently.
“When Netherton burned, I looked for him but never found a trace. I thought he had been killed in the raid until today; today, I found him in the vault of Kirkburn Castle. He is very much alive and I brought him back with me. I brought him back tae ye.”
Clova couldn’t see very well, but she could see the tall figure coming closer. He was covered with a beard, and his hair was long and white, but the closer he came, the more she recognized the stature of the man. There was no one in Scotland as tall and proud as her Nikolaus had been.
Her grip on Cam’s arm tightened.
“Are ye sure?” she breathed, hardly sounding like herself. “Is that… himself?”
Cam smiled as he watched Nikolaus’ face when Isadora told him who the old woman was. “It is Nikolaus Netherton himself,” he murmured. “I promise, it is him. Wait here and I’ll send him tae ye.”
With that, he left her gripping the doorjamb for support as he went to meet Nikolaus and Isadora. He said a few words to Nikolaus, who had much the same look of shock on his face that Clova did. He pointed to Clova, clearly encouraging Nikolaus to go to her.
Nikolaus didn’t need much encouragement. Letting go of Isadora, he made his way up the hill, alone, until he was standing in front of Clova’s cottage, his eyes wide with shock.
“Clova?” he asked timidly.
Clova looked at him as if she was seeing a ghost. “Is it ye, Nikolaus?”
Nikolaus’ old eyes were glimmering with emotion. “Aye,” he said. “’Tis me. I… I’m sorry I dunna look as ye remember. I used tae be quite comely, so I was told.”
That voice. Clova knew that voice. Blinking back the tears, she reached out for him and he grasped her hand. They clutched each other tightly.
“It doesna matter what the years have done,” she whispered. “Ye will always be my fine, strong lad. I see ye in my dreams every night.”
Nikolaus held her hands against his chest, gazing down at the woman who used to have the flaming red hair. She was completely white now, and clearly blind in one eye, but no less beautiful to him than she’d always been.
“I always wondered what I would say tae ye if I ever saw ye again,” he said, lump in his throat.
“Now that the moment is upon me, I can hardly think of a word tae say. But I suppose… I suppose if I would say something, it would be that although I married a fine woman, I never forgot ye, Clova. Ye were my first love.”
Clova reached up, touching his bearded face. “If the fates are kind tae us, mayhap I’ll be yer last.”
“I could only be so fortunate.”
“As would I.”
“Will ye give me time tae win ye again?”
“Ye won me the moment I saw ye.”
There was nothing more to say, at least nothing more out here, for all to hear. But in private, there would be much to say as old flames were once again kindled, born from the embers of a love that never died.
Together, they entered Clova’s old cottage and closed the door. Neither paid the slightest notice to Cam and Isadora as they stood several feet away, watching the touching reunion with tears in their eyes.
Finally, the love story of Nikolaus and Clova would know a happy ending.