TWELVE
Valentin
A gentle breeze shushed over the field, followed by the dull clang of bells. Val sat in the grass, arms wrapped around his knees. Edelweiss fluttered amid a cluster of yellow daisies, their scraggly white petals holding tight despite the flower’s ragged appearance.
He plucked a daisy and inhaled soft florals that smelled of scented oils, sighing with the breeze and lifting his head to scan the alpine field.
Granite crags pierced the horizon, reaching for a sky dotted with puffy white clouds. Rich, green grass stretched to the cliff’s edge before the earth fell away, plunging into the sapphire blue waters of a glacial lake.
Idyllic was the word he would use for this hillside, if his heart were not so heavy.
A stunning vista. A landscape that had stolen his breath summer after summer, only this year, he could not find beauty in the field or flowers or blue waters reflecting the sky.
Instead, he saw Lurenz in the wild onions and spurts of wheat planted by the wind.
Saw his dark hair in a calf’s chocolate brown coat, and his eyes in every lake he and his herd passed.
Lurenz had haunted Val from the moment he stepped foot on the Meier farm as a youth, but now his ghost clung ever closer, following him from field to field and creeping into his dreams. A painful reminder of what a gift his winter in the village had been. And what a curse.
Lurenz was a farmer in the village.
Val was a Senn.
A life cloistered behind walls would only turn him into a beast in a maze. He needed sweeping vistas, the broad blue sky, and towering peaks. Not spires and cobbles and small, winter-starved fields pocked with stones.
He needed openness and honesty. Not a farmer who kept himself behind walls taller than the one choking his village.
Yes, he would return in the winter. And yes, if Lurenz wished it he would welcome him into his arms, his bed, his heart. Val had not lied, and he never would to the farmer. But he also did not see how they could be.
Lurenz could no more give up his farm than Val could his herd. They were doomed, like the figures of myth he had seen in monastery tapestries, to spend a portion of the year without, and count the days until their parting in the time they had together.
Grunta mooed a startled warning and Val shot to his hooves, scanning the horizon. Wolves were common this close to the tree-line, and higher in the mountains, lindwurm and tatzelwurm lurked. Grass bent in the wind, cowbells clanged, but no wolf raised its head and no wurm snaked through the grass.
He counted his herd, putting eyes on Grunta’s calf, Hana, and the two others that had been born in the last few weeks. All accounted for, all safe.
Grunta mooed again, and broke from the herd, trotting briskly to a low rise across the field.
“Troublemaker.” Val sighed and broke into an easy jog. Hana barreled into him, kicking her hooves in play. “Not now, Hana.” She trilled and pranced in a circle, swatting Val with her tail and nudging his side. “Off, you.”
He fluttered a hand at her. She mooed brightly and cut him off. Val tripped, falling head over hooves and rolling a ways down the slope, coming to a rest beside a thin copse of trees. He rubbed his head, frowning at the bronze horncap laying in the grass.
“Damn cows.”
“That is no way to speak to these darlings.”
Val shot up, staggering back at the impossible sight before him.
Lurenz.
Lurenz, here, on a high mountain field in worn trousers rolled to the knees and muddied boots.
The dark shadow of a beard clung to his jaw, and a wide brimmed hat shaded his eyes.
He shrugged a weather-beaten rucksack from his shoulders and laced his fingers together, stretching his arms high and shaking them out with a sigh.
“Gods, that’s better.”
“I should say.” Val stared at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Onna married,” he answered. “Rather quickly, and I don’t rightly understand the whole story, but it solved my crow problem and brought an extra set of hands to the farm.”
Val edged forward, still not believing he was truly here. This was a trick of the light. A vision brought on by the altitude. A dream. He was still sitting in his patch of daisies and edelweiss, fast asleep. “And so you hiked into the mountains?”
“Came to find you.” Lurenz crossed his arms. Laughter shone in his eyes, bluer than Val remembered. “And now that I have done that, I suppose I can go home.”
He turned to leave and Val shot forward, grabbing his wrist and hauling him close. “No.”
“Why not? I achieved what I set out to do.”
“I don’t believe for a moment laying eyes on me was all you intended.” And he kissed him. Not softly. Not lingering and full of sweetness, but with all the ache of a lonely night. With the sorrow that had dogged him every step away from the farm. “What are you doing here?”
Lurenz laughed, more lighthearted and carefree than Val had ever heard. He jerked his chin at Hana. “I wanted to check on our calf.”
“You—” Val growled and buried his face in Lurenz’s neck, reveling in the musky, sweaty scent of his farmer. His Lurenz, so far beyond the walls of his village.
His knees hit the earth, arms wrapped tight around Lurenz’s waist, refusing to let him go. “Tell me, Lurenz.”
Lurenz set his hands on Val’s shoulders, smiling down at him. “Onna married, as I said.” He swallowed. Took a steadying breath. “Her partner is no stranger to fields and farmlife, and after a week, they all but threw me out. Said I was ruining their honeymoon.”
“I am sure you were a delight.”
“Always am.”
“I would like to meet her partner.”
“You will,” Lurenz said easily. “When we return in the winter.”
“The winter?” Val propped his chin on Lurenz’s stomach, gazing up at him as hope fluttered like a bird in his chest.
“If you can tolerate me for that long.” Gentle fingers swept through Val’s curls, teasing the ends. “Watching you leave with the herd was torture, Valentin. I never again wish to see the back of the Senn I love walking away from me.”
His heart clenched, surprise and awe drowning the clang of bells and whisper of wind. “The Senn you—”
“I love you, Valentin.” Lurenz’s eyes burned into him. “I have loved you for far longer than I even knew, and I shall spend the rest of this season, and every day thereafter making it up to you.”
“There is nothing to be made up, you fool of a farmer.” Val burst to his hooves and swept Lurenz from the ground, spinning them in a circle. “I love you, too.” He covered his cheek with a kiss, relishing the burn of Lurenz’s beard against his lips. “I love you.”
Laughter bubbled from Lurenz’s throat. He braced himself on Val’s arms as they whirled and Hana mooed, prancing in circles with Grunta and Bruna and somehow, despite the broad sky and vast field, the world felt larger and lovelier than ever before.
“You left your village for me.” He slowed and set Lurenz’s feet down. “I will tolerate you, as you say, for as long as you wish.”
“Then I wish it forever.” He slid his hands down Valentin’s arms, taking his hand and tugging him across the field. “But for now, show me the world.”
THE END