by Nancy M Bell
“That still doesn’t solve the problem of where you are to go and how you are to support yourself,” Sarie pointed out.
“I’ll get a position serving at the Turk’s Head, or the Admiral Benbow,” she declared. I could be a maid at the Queen’s Hotel, or maybe the Godolphin Arms in Marazion….”
Sarie shook her head. “No place in town will hire you. You’ve always been a bit wild, and well, there’s your mother’s reputation to deal with as well. Folks are saying as the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree and are in sympathy with your da. Saying what a pity it is he couldn’t control his wife or his daughter.”
“That’s not fair! I’m not my mother, lifting my skirts for any bloke who winks at me….” She flushed and broke off when Vear shot her a looked veiled with hidden meaning. “I’m not like her,” she insisted.
“So what is Mistress Bella to do?” Gwin asked. “She can’t stay here forever.”
“Why not?” Bella brightened. “I could keep house for Vear and….” She broke off at the expression on her friends’ faces.
“The Council would have much to say about that, so they would,” Gwin said darkly.
“I can go to London and get a spot in a shop. I have a little money, I could share a flat, or get a room somewhere,” Bella went off on another tangent.
“What could you afford in London, for God’s sake? Someplace in Shoreditch, or God forbid, one of those places like Brick Lane in the East End? You’d not last the night without landing in hot water. Be reasonable, Bella,” Sarie implored her. “Come home and talk to your da, I’ll go with you, and so will Mum.”
“Not until after my birthday,” she insisted. “I won’t take the risk of Da forcing me into something until I have age of majority.”
“Fine, then. So be it.” Vear lurched to his feet. “You can stay here until your natal day. Then you go back to your da and work this out.” He strode toward the entrance.
“Where are you going?” Bella leapt to her feet and hurried after him. “You can’t leave.”
“I can and I will, Arabella. I will not stay here alone with you and chance giving in to the temptation you present. You are welcome to the hospitality of my home. Gwin will see that you have all you need.”
“Where will you go? Will I see you again before I have to go back?”
“I will be in the sea, where I belong. It is folly on my part to walk the world of man for too long. I begin to hunger for things I have no right to. Goodbye, Bella. Mistress Sarie.”
“Vear, wait….” Bella lunged at him, but the dark shape jumped from the rocky ledge and dissolved into the night. “Vear,” she called after him, her eyes desperately searching the sands below the cave.
A dark shape lanced through the surf rolling up the strand. For a moment long black hair floated on the foam and then only a sleek seal bobbed among the kelp. It turned its pointed nose toward her for a moment before diving into the phosphorescent glimmer of the full tide lapping at the cove.
Arabella collapsed in a heap by the entrance and buried her face in her hands. She shrugged off the comforting hand on her shoulder and sobbed all the harder. What was she to do now? The pain in her chest strangled the breath in her lungs. Was she having a heart attack? Somehow she couldn’t find the strength to care. Better to die than live without the selkie in her life. She was dimly aware of Sarie’s voice speaking softly, but Bella refused to listen and threw herself wholeheartedly into the maelstrom of emotion raging within.
Eventually, she had to stop. Her throat was raw with wailing and her head so stuffed she couldn’t catch her breath. Gwin Scawen’s papery fingers stroked her face and eased the pain a bit.
“Come on, love. Up you get, that’s a girl,” Sarie coaxed her to her feet.
Bella lurched upward and stumbled toward the fire. Gwin scampered ahead of her and poured her a cuppa. She allowed herself to be settled on fire-warmed boulder and clutched the cup between shaking hands. Nothing would ever melt the ice gripping her heart. Vear was gone. Really gone. There was something so final about the way he left, the tortured expression on his face that tore her into bits. Bella wiped her nose with the back of one hand. Lordy, how could she still be blubbing? Surely, there were no more tears in her.
“What will happen to him?” She focused her bleary gaze on the piskie.
The little man shrugged his thin shoulders. “If he makes it to the Selkie City before the mermen get a hold of him, he’ll be chastised, but they’ll offer him refuge.”
“What about the Council thingy?”
“Aye, well. He will be called before them to answer for his transgressions, I suppose.”
“What did he do that was so wrong?” Bella wailed. Fresh tears cascaded unheeded down her cheeks. “All he did was help me, rescue me from being forced by that scut Daniel.”
“That’s true,” Sarie interjected.
“’Tis not so much what he did, as how he did it,” Gwin said slowly. “He used magic in front of a mortal and then he actually place-skipped you to his cave by magical means. And he has allowed Mistress Sarie to be brought here as well. Those things he will have to answer for.”
Bella finished her tea and was grateful for the blanket Sarie draped around her shoulders. Her eyes closed and her head bobbed involuntarily, the torrent of emotions exhausted her. Shaking her head, Bella rose and made her way to the entrance. She leaned on the wall and gazed out at the sea, the crests rising and falling as if it breathed. How could love hurt so much? Is this how Da felt when Mum left? God, no wonder he’s so teasy all the time. It isn’t supposed to be like this. Why did she fall in love with someone she could never have, bloody hell, he wasn’t even human, for God’s sake. She scanned the dark water for any sign of a seal’s sleek head—not any seal, her seal.
The wind sweeping in off the sea was cold and she shivered. Sighing, she turned back toward the interior. Her feet dragged in the deep sand and her knees gave out as she reached the ring of light. Sinking to the ground she toppled over, head pillowed on her arm. The flames blurred as her lashes lowered in spite of her efforts to stay awake.
“Go to sleep, Bella. Things will look brighter in the morning,” Sarie soothed.
Releasing a tremulous breath, she gave in to the lethargy sucking at her.
* * *
Bella shifted, trying to ease the nagging pain in her neck and shoulder. No matter how she squirmed and wriggled the discomfort persisted. Giving in to the inevitable, she opened eyes gritty with dried tears. Scrubbing both fists across her eyes, she struggled to sit up. Sarie lay curled on the other side of the fire with the piskie man tucked under her arm. The little man met Bella’s gaze and raised a finger to his lips, raising his eyebrows toward the woman at his back. She nodded and got unsteadily to her feet. The blanket pooled in the sand at her feet. Bella stepped out of the folds and let her legs take her to the entrance. Pale dawn light turned the world to black and grey, the pearly mist swirling in the hollows and around the rocks standing bleakly above the receding waters of the tide. Tears threatened again and she willed them back. Idiot man, why couldn’t he see they could make this work? Given the chance, Bella was sure she could make the Council see the light and understand that she and Vear belonged together. Her head lifted as the thought struck her. She could go and talk to them herself, without the selkie knowing about it. The more she toyed with the idea, the better she liked it.
Wrapping her arms around her waist against the early morning chill, she turned back to Gwin with renewed purpose. She beckoned him with a gesture and with a great show of reluctance, the little brown man wriggled out of Sarie’s embrace without waking her. He came to stand with her on silent feet and leaned against her thigh, staring out at the sea where the choughs were just waking.
“What is it you wish, Mistress Bella?”
She glanced at his upturned face. “I need you to take me to meet this Council thing,” she whispered.
“Oh no, I willna be doin’ that, so I won’t.” His sw
arthy face paled and the little man shook his head violently.
“Come on, Gwin. You have to. I need to convince them that Vear and I belong together. I know I can, if I can just get a chance to talk to them.”
“No, no. T’will only make things worse. You don’t understand. There are those on the Council who wish to make trouble for the great black one. They have been waiting for him to make that one final mistake so they can banish him from the worlds of Man.”
“Why?” Bella frowned.
The piskie heaved a huge sigh. “It goes back a few long years, so it does. There was this female selkie who fell in love with a merman and went to live with him under the sea. Her family warned Gwiryon, but she was headstrong and wouldn’t hear a word against Talek. She left her home and family and no one heard a word from her until one day two years later, a small seal came to the beach where Gwiryon’s family dwelt. The poor creature was in bad shape and lay gasping on the shore. The selkies gathered round it and before their eyes it shifted into a human girl child. They gathered her into the house and when she was strong enough to speak, she told them a very sad tale.”
“What did she say?” Bella whispered.
“Her name was Gwaynten because she was born in the spring of the year, or so her mother told her. She confessed she was the child of Gwiryon and Talek. When the queried why she was on the strand alone, the child cried and her form wavered. It seemed the family’s misgivings were well founded and Talek was a less than loving mate once he had Gwiry in his possession. He mistreated her horribly and was cruel to the only child of the union as well. Gwaynten told of how her mother smuggled her out of the merman’s home and gave her directions to her old home. She entrusted the girl in her seal form to an old friend who was a dolphin. The grizzled mammal managed to get the child almost to their destination before Talek’s mates found them. The old dolphin gave his life in order for Gwaynten to escape.”
“How horrible,” Sarie joined the conversation coming to sit beside Bella.
“Gwiryon was Vear Du’s sister.” Gwin Scawen hung his head and wiped away a tear. “She was a delightful lady and not deserving of such ill use. The child told tales of beatings and abuse. Vear Du rose up in anger and none could halt him. He stormed down to Talek’s abode with an army of his cousins and other extended family. The seas ran red with blood, both merman and selkie that day. Vear Du killed Talek and brought his sister home safe. But to this day, the mermen have never forgiven him murdering, in their eyes at least, the merman king’s son. Most of the Council ruled that the selkie was justified in his actions given the state Gwiry was in when she returned. But some refused to listen and stuck to old party lines. The feud has festered over many long years. I fear, this will give them the ammunition they need to prescribe a dire fate for my old friend.” Gwin shook his head and a tear dripped off his long tapered nose.
“How could they blame him when the girl’s husband was such a bounder?” Bella demanded. “Can’t they see what’s right and wrong?”
“Sometimes, it’s not about what’s right, but more about who has the most power, or the most arrogance,” Sarie said.
“Aye, ‘tis so, I’m afraid,” Gwin agreed.
“And Vear’s gone back to the sea? What if the mermen find out he’s there and unguarded until he reaches the Selkie City?” Bella clutched her throat.
“They’ll kill him,” Gwin said bluntly. “It’s many years they’ve waited for the chance and he’s so besotted with Mistress Bella the big black one won’t be thinkin’ right, so he won’t.” The piskie wrung his hands and shifted from one booted foot to the other. “Kill him, they will.”
“Oh, dear God! What have I done?” Bella choked on the words.
“Get a grip on yourself, Bella,” Sarie scolded. “What’s done is done and nothing we can do about it. You need to think about what you’re going to do.”
“I’m not marrying that scut Treliving, that’s for sure.” She rounded on her friend.
“Peace, girl. I never said you should. I guess you can stay here until after your birthday, but then you’ve got to go back to your da and figure this out. You know that, do you not?”
“Much as I hate to agree with you, I can’t see any other way. Da will scald my arse, no question. He can beat me dead, but he can’t make me marry Daniel,” she declared.
“Surely, Mistress Bella your father willna beat you.” Gwin was aghast at the thought.
“Like as not, that’s exactly what he’ll do. He’s always on about he was too soft on me mum and things would have been different if he’d used a harder hand.” Bella smiled ruefully.
“Do you ever hear from her? Your mum, I mean. Could you go to her?” Sarie wondered.
“I don’t think so. No, certainly not. I tried to contact her when Da first came up with his daft idea of me hooking up with Daniel. She was a right bitch, screeched at me about how I ruined her life and she can’t never come back to see her folks. Like I was the one whored around and not her.”
“Bella!” Sarie exclaimed in shock. “She’s still your mum, ye shouldn’t speak about her like that.”
Bella snorted and refrained from answering. She poked at the fire and fetched some turf from the pile at the rear of the cave. It smoked a bit before it caught proper. Tipping out the dregs of the last pot, she plunked in two tea bags waited for the water to boil, tapping her foot with impatience.
“I suppose I’ll just have to go back with my hat in hand and face the music.” Bella sighed. “Damn Daniel to hell, and damn the stupid Council.”
The water finally bubbled and boiled. Wrapping a rag around her hand, she picked up the kettle and began to pour water into the pot. A squeal from Gwin Scawen startled her and water sloshed over her fingers.
“Whatever is the matter, for heaven’s sake?” she demanded. “Oh bother and damn,” she cursed as she dropped the kettle and water splashed onto the sand. Bella whirled toward the entrance where Gwin stood with his hands clasped over his mouth, his eyes wide and horrified, fixed on the cove below.
Sarie reached the opening first while Bella wiped her hand on her pants. She arrived only a few steps behind her friend and glanced downward to see what was upsetting Gwin. She hesitated when Gwin and Sarie slid recklessly down the narrow trail, scanning the strand in search of something that could have caused such concern.
Something rolled and bobbed in the waves at the water’s edge. It must be flotsam that fell off a passing ship, she mused. Her gaze skipped over it and continued to search the beach. Her attention kept returning to the dark shape in the azure water. An errant swell lifted the object and turned it over.
“Oh my stars!” Bella’s heart leapt into her throat and her pulse thundered in her ears. Without any thought for life and limb she threw herself down the embankment after Sarie and Gwin. She landed in a heap on the sand just an instant behind her friends, her precipitous descent making up for the hesitation earlier. Scrambling to her feet, Bella raced toward the sea, splashing into the shallows.
“Vear!” She grasped the selkie, her fingers sliding on the slick seal skin. “Vear! What the bloody hell happened? Can you hear me? Open your eyes, damn it.” Tears choked off her words.
“Here, let’s get him up on the beach.” Sarie appeared on the other side grasping the bull seal under the flipper. “Dear God, he’s like a dead weight.”
“Don’t say that! He’s not dead, he’s not,” Bella wailed.
The girls struggled in the surf with the unwieldy burden making little progress toward the water line.
“Gwin, quit gawking and help us,” Sarie commanded the distraught little man. “Use your magic and get him up to the cave, would you.”
“Oh, yes, of course, Mistress Sarie. Of course. The mermen must have got him, oh look at his injuries….”
“The magic, Gwin,” Sarie gritted the words through her teeth.
Bella was only vaguely aware of the exchange, her vision filled with the still features of the bull seal in her gra
sp. The sleek hide was covered in deep gashes and odd swellings. She glanced out at the sea, beyond the ninth wave two heads with streaming yellow hair rode the swells.
“Bastards,” she screamed at them. “Come a little closer, you cowards. How many of you did it take to do this? I’ll take you apart when I get my hands on you….”
“Bella, leave off and pay attention,” Sarie shouted. “Gwin, now would be so good….”
Her head spun with vertigo and the next thing Bella knew she was sprawled in the sand of the cave. She scrambled to her feet and helped Sarie gather blankets and first aid materials from the shelves at the rear. Gwin Scawen crouched by the huge ebony head, stroking the long whiskers on the massive snout.
“Why doesn’t he change into human form?” Bella muttered.
“He’ll heal better in this form,” Gwin whispered. His fingers moved over the abrasions on the skull and fluttered over the deep gash on the shoulders.
Bella was encouraged to see the gashes quit bleeding and start to close over a bit. The selkie groaned and flapped a flipper feebly. “Is he coming around?” She leaned closer.
“Best he not regain his senses,” Sarie advised. “We have nothing to ease the pain. Can you keep him quiet and senseless for a while?” she asked Gwin.
“It’s right you are, as always, Mistress Sarie. I can ease the pain while he walks in the other realms for a bit. Most of this I can heal, although it will take some time and my powers are small.”
“Just do what you can,” Bella pleaded. She plunked herself down beside the selkie and wiped the worst of the blood and gore away before tucking the warm blankets around him. “I’d feel better if he was in human form and could talk to me, but if it’s best he stay as he is, then so be it.” Leaving Gwin to administer to his friend, she stalked to the cave entrance and glared out at the sea. The heads of the mermen no longer bobbed on the waves. Bella scanned the nearby area searching for any sign of them.