CHAPTER XXXII
THE SURRENDER OF THE BELOVED
But something in the air of the chamber struck to the heart--somethingdifferent, subtle, unfamiliar, dazing. As his eyes grew accustomed tothe gloom, he saw the figure of a girl lying on a couch of heather overwhich was thrown a rug made of the skins of wild animals. The face wasturned from him, but the girl was not asleep, for he could see thatquick, helpless sobs shook her frame, and that her attitude betokenedthe abandonment of despair. Wat Gordon's heart leaped within him andthen stood still, when he realized that for the first time in his lifehe stood within the chamber of his love.
At the noise of the opening door the girl slowly turned her head, andher eyes fell on the figure of Wat. The young man sank on his knees alittle way from the couch. The girl continued to gaze at him withoutspeech, and as for Wat, he could find no fitting words. He strove forutterance, but his tongue was dry to the roots, and the roof of hismouth parched like leather.
Presently Kate sat up with a world of wonder and fear on her face. Shewas wrapped about the shoulders in a great shawl of fleecy wool, suchas a hundred years ago the shipwrecked mariners of the Spanish Armadahad taught these northern islanders to knit. Beneath it, here andthere, appeared the white glimmer of fine linen cloth, such as couldonly come from the lint wheels of the Lowlands.
The girl's lips were parted, and her eyes, great and black, appeared sobrilliant that the shining of them seemed to lighten all her face therein that dim place.
"Wat," she said, "you have come back to me! I knew you would, and I amnot afraid. I knew you would come if you could and speak once to me.For you are mine in all worlds, and you gave your life for me. It isbut a dream, I know--but ah, such a sweet dream!"
She held out her arms towards him with such wonderful pity that Wat,kneeling on the floor, could not move; and words he found none toutter, so marvellous did her speech seem to him.
"It is a dream," she repeated, in a voice full of hushed awe, "I knowit. And it is a very gracious God that hath sent it to me this firstnight of my loss. I saw my lad go down in the deep, hurrying waters--mylove, my love, and now he will never know that I loved him!"
"Kate," whispered Wat, hoarsely, and with a voice which he knew notfor his own--"Kate, it is indeed I--myself, in the flesh. I have cometo save you. I did not die. I did not drown. It is I, Wat Gordon, yourown lad, come to kiss your hand, to carry you safe through a world ofenemies."
The girl leaned forward and looked towards him wistfully and intently.She was shaken from head to foot with strange tremors. Love, fear, andmost delicious shame strove together within her maiden's heart.
"If indeed you be Walter Gordon in the flesh, I thank the Lord for yoursafety. But go, for here you are in terrible danger every moment. Ihave said, I know not what. I was asleep, and when I awoke I saw you,and thought that I yet dreamed a dream."
Wat reached over and took her hand. He bent his head to it reverentlyand kissed it.
"Sweet love," he whispered, "have no fear. In a little while I shall beaway. I must go from you ere the dawn comes. But your friend and mine,your hostess of the isle, brought me to this dear and sacred place,thinking me not unworthy. She waits at the door. In a little space thelight will come and the island men awake. Then I must take my life inmy hand and be far away before the day. But rest assured, I am at alltimes near enough to watch over you, my beloved."
Wat looked steadfastly and adoringly at Kate, and lo! the tears wererunning silently down her face and falling on the pillow. He drew alittle nearer to her.
"Love," he said, softly, "you have forgiven me. You forgave me longago, did you not? I loved you over much. That was the reason. See," hewhispered, pulling his gold heart from about his neck, "this is thetoken that you forgave me." And he bent and kissed it before putting itback again in his bosom.
She raised her eyes to his. They shone upon him with a strange lightthat had never been kindled in them before. The light of a great loveshone out of the wonderful deeps of them, beaconing the way clear intothe haven of her heart. It was the maiden's look of gladness he sawthere--the joy that she had kept herself for the beloved--so that nowat last she can give him all.
"Oh, Wat--dear, dear Wat," she whispered, "I love you; I cannot choosebut love you. I cannot be proud with you any more. I am so tired ofbeing proud. For my heart has cried out for you to come to me thisweary, weary while. I have been so long alone--without any one--withoutyou."
And she made a little virginal gesture of pain which sent Wat's armsabout her in a moment. He could not answer her in words.
But he was wiser, for instead their lips drew together. He kept hiseyes on hers as their faces closed each on the other. His head reeledwith the imagined sweetness. He seemed to remember nothing but hereyes, and how they were ocean-deep and world-large. He felt that hecould plunge into them as into the sea from an overhanging cliff.
But just ere their lips met Kate suddenly dropped her head against hisbreast.
"Wat!" she whispered, intensely, "tell me--you heard what I said whenI thought you had come to me in a dream--that--that I loved you andwanted you to return to me? You will never think less of me, never loveme less for my words, nor for letting you love me thus?"
Wat Gordon laughed a low, secure, satisfied laugh deep down in histhroat. He had forgotten the watchful woman at the door, the wakingenemies without, the coming dawn swiftly striding towards Suliscannafrom the east, the long, dangerous passage of the sea-cavern, theperils innumerable that lay about them both. He loved, and he held hislove all securely in his arms. She questioned of his love, and he feltthat he could answer her.
"My love," he whispered, "I love you so that all things--life, death,eternity--are the same to me. Nothing weighs in the scale when set tobalance you. I loved you, Kate, when I thought you must hate me formy folly and wickedness. How shall I love you now, when your sweetestwords of this night are writ in fire on my heart? But all is one--Ilove you, and I love you, and I love you!"
The girl sighed the satisfied sigh of one who listens to that which shedesires to hear and knows that she will hear, yet who for very love'ssake must needs hear it again and yet again.
And her arms also went tremblingly about him, and they twain that hadbeen sundered so long, kissed their first kiss--the kiss of surrenderthat comes but once, and then only to the pure and worthy. The dewywarmth and fragrance of her lips, the heady rapture of the unexpectedmeeting so thrilled his heart and dominated his senses that broad daymight well have stolen upon them and found the lovers so, "the worldforgetting, by the world forgot."
But the voice of Bess Landsborough from the doorway caused them tostart suddenly apart with a shock of loss like the snapping of a limb.Yet it was a kindly voice, and one full of infinite sympathy for thosewho, like Wat and Kate, were ready to count all things well lost forlove.
"My lad," she said, gently, "ye maun e'en be tramping. In an hour orso the sun will be keekin' ower the hills of the east, and gin yetarry your lass will mourn a lover. There are more days than one, andnights longer than this short one of summer. Trust your love to me.Bess Landsborough chose a strange way of love hersel', but she keepsa kindly heart for young folk, and you twa silly bairnies shall notlippen to her in vain. Come your ways, lad."
And Wat would have gone at her word. For the hope of the future hadpossession of him, and, besides, his head was dazed and moidered withthe first taste of love's sweetness.
But the girl raised herself a little and held out her arms.
"Bid me good-night just this once," she said, "and tell me again thatyou love me."
So Wat took his sweetheart in his arms. There seemed no words that hecould say which would express the thoughts of his heart at that moment.
"I love you--God knows _how_ I love you!" was all that he found to say.And then, "God keep my little lass!"
There came a strange hush in his ears, and the next moment he foundhimself outside, breasting the cool airs of the night as if they hadbeen the waves
of the tide-race, and listening to the voice of BessLandsborough, which carried no more meaning to his ears than if it hadbeen the crying of a seagull rookery upon the rocks of Lianacraig.
"Come back to-night and I will meet you at the shore-side," was allthat disentangled itself from the meaningless turmoil of his guide'swords. For the fragrance of his love's lips was yet on his, and he waswondering how long the memory of it would stay with him.
Without even waiting to take off his clothes, Wat pushed out into thechannel of the sea-passage. He swam as easily and unconsciously asthough he had been floating in some world of dreams, in which he foundhimself finned like a fish. And when he came to himself he was lyingunder the shelter of his boat in the cove of his own green islet ofFiara, trying to recall the look that he had seen in his love's eyes inthe gloom of Bess Landsborough's guest-chamber. But though he buriedhis head in his hands, and laid his hands on the sand to shut out thesky and the shining breakers, he could not recall the similitude of it.Only he knew that it had been most wonderful, and that his eyes hadnever seen anything like it before.
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