31st October 1102

She hadn’t gone far. Kelgar could just make out her figure in the darkness, a small, hunched silhouette against the soft glow of the moonlit sea. The waves were slowly rolling up onto the shore, sending up a fine mist of droplets that hung suspended, glittering in the faint light before they sank back into the ocean. The sea blurred at the horizon, milky blue merging with the deeper dark, framed by the hulking bodies of rock.

A gentle breeze carried the scent of salt, mingling with the sharper tang of sap from the cypress trees that shuddered above him. Above him the stars peered through the network of closely knit shadows. The waxing moon dangled from the ebony velvet of the night sky. Glowing, she delicately covered her naked body, hiding from the world until a months time, when she would once again open wide the cloak to reveal her full splendour.

“Well there’s a mighty fine looking silhouette if I don’t say so myself”, Kelgar called down to her, “We were looking for yew little chicken, didn’t realise that yew’d wandered off”.

She didn’t reply, her head turned stalwartly towards the sea as though mesmerised. Kelgar thought with a chill of the old sailor’s tale of the girl so beguiled by the gentle lapping waves that she swam out too far, floundering until the ocean’s watery embrace finally dragged her down. As a boy, Kelgar had dreamed of her, on nights when the tide was high, and the faint sound of the waves filled his ears. She would crawl up to his bed, her hands making wet slapping noises on the wooden floor. She would reach for him, her skin wrinkled and bloated with water, her sunken eyes filled with longing, her blue-tinged, wet lips open for a kiss. He had always awoken before that kiss, shivering and clammy in his bed, to the sound of the sea slopping against the cliffs.

He shook off the image and walked towards her. The ground beneath his feet changed from the faint rustle of grass blades flattened by his heavy tread, to a the scrunching of thousands of tiny crystals of sand rubbing against each other as he passed by.

“Are yew alright little one?” he murmured, reaching her side.

If anyone understood how Igrayne was feeling, Kelgar supposed it must have been him. One moonlit night had seen them both rent with scars. Kelgar had been handsome before, now he thought with a slight smile, he looked like he had fallen onto a rake. But he could look in the mirror and still see the fine man that lay beneath the tattered face. He wondered if Igrayne could say the same when she peered appraisingly into the harshly reflecting glass.

He plonked down onto the sand beside her, gingerly removing a broken piece of shell that tried to embed itself in his buttock.

“Oh, you know… just needed a bit of alone time is all”, she sighed.

He saw that she had pulled her hair from the neat bun she had worn of late. It cascaded down her shoulders, a waterfall of curls that veiled the scarred skin around her eye. The white slash below her mouth was still visible, pulling the skin of her full lips taught around it. It made her seem sad, her lower lip slightly sagging. She had always been happy before.

“I see”, he grinned at her in the darkness hoping she would follow suit, “well, I promise I’ll be quiet as a mouse. Yew won’t even know I’m here”.

She stared at him in the darkness, her sorry, little face gleaming in the moon’s weak blush. Then suddenly her face broke into a matching grin.

“A mouse?” she raised one eyebrow incredulously, “blimey Kelgar, yew’ve got to be the loudest mouse I ever heard. Just listen to you now you big oaf!”

Kelgar, who had been reaching beneath him, scrabbling in the sand trying to find whatever it was that was poking him froze.

“Well it isn’t my fault there’s all these damn shells trying to bury themselves in my fine ass is it?”

She shot him a skeptical look, one corner of her mouth trying not to smile while the other was dragged into a frown.

“Alright, alright. I’m silent. Watching the waves and thinking and all”.

They sat for a moment until Igrayne sighed in exasperation, “This is not good, yer breathing’s as loud as an ox Kelgar. Nobody can ponder anything while listening to that hullabuloo”,

“Alright fine. Well perhaps I can help yew in yer pondering. What is it yew wanted to ponder?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I just wanted to get away really”.

She arched her back, planting her hands in the damp sand behind her, her face upturned to gaze at the sky above.

“The stars are so beautiful”, she sighed, sending curls flooding down her shoulders as her breast rose and fell.

“They certainly are”, he gazed up appreciately as they glittered in the darkness like luminous eyes.

Beside him Igrayne lay back in the sand, tendrils of hair slipping sinuously from her face to lie tangled in the sand.

“So beautiful”, she whispered under her breath, her eyes sparkling with tears.

“They certainly but, I tell yew what chicky. They’re a bunch of saucy wenches they are. Just look at the way they’re winking at me”.

She looked up at him appraisingly, “Kelgar, can I ask you something?”

“Sure can chicky, what is it yew want to know?”

“Do yew feel ugly now”, the words were hushed, barely audible above the soflty crashing waves.

“Do yew think I’m ugly now?” he murmured gazing down at her upturned face.

“No! No, that’s not what I meant. I just wanted to know if yew did?”

Her sad, little face was looking up at him wistfully, her mouth trembling in a smile that frequently dropped into a frown as she tried to hold back the tears.

“Because yew do?” he asked gently.

She nodded, as fat tears began to roll from her blinking eyes down the side of her face where they were caught by the golden net of her hair.

Wordlessly he leant down towards her. Her skin was flushed and soft, her eyes brimming with living tears, her lips open in shock. Gently his mouth found hers, and he kissed her warm, salty lips. The waves receded and with them a silent figure, a smile on her turgid, drowned lips.

She stared at him in the darknes, her eyes wide and startled. He slowly rose to his feet offering a hand. She accepted mutely and he pulled her to her feet.

“What on earth was that for?” she asked, finding her voice again.

He grinned at her wolfishly, “Well chicky… I wouldn’t kiss an ugly girl now would I?”

She stared at him in disbelief for a moment and then began to giggle, her face breaking into a smile.

Then she shrieked as a large wave washed up the beach with a whoosh, drenching them to their knees in icy cold water.

“Bloody hell!” Kelgar swore.

Igrayne started chuckling, which rapidly turned into a full- bodied laugh until she was clutching her sides, her eyes filling with tears. Kelgar couldn’t help but join her.

“Well, I wanted to watch the waves”, she snickered, “but I certaintly didn’t need to see them up this close”.

She tried to shake out her dripping cloak while Kelgar uselessly squelched back and forth in his waterlogged boots.

“You know Kelgar”, Igrayne grinned at him widely in the gloom, “You’re a complete cad you are”.

“Yes chicky, I know it for sure. Though I’m surprised yew hadn’t been noticing yerself before now. I never imagined I had hidden it so well”.

He was glad to see her laughing, happy face. When she laughed, her mouth no longer seemed sad, her smile breaking the confines of the scar and lighting up her face.

“Now, would yew be so kind as to let me escort yew back to the party young missy?”

She nodded with a smile and took his arm.