The Gisborne Chronicles

CHR2/CH6-The Bull, and Guy's Three Gifts

Auriel set off just after noon to the hill west of the farm, as she had done for the previous eight days. The hill, though generally used for communing with other folks of the Magical Realm, was a fine place from which to oversee much of the surrounding countryside, but especially the crossroads that Guy would come to at the end of his journey. It was a scant two miles from the farm, and if she saw him, she could be on the road and running to meet him in but a moment.

"Let it be today," she prayed, " I cannot bear to be disappointed again, let it be today! If he comes I will run like the wind to surprise him, and we shall have a few moments alone. Dear God my sweet man, how I have missed you, and longed for you! Just to feel your arms around me, and your sweet lips on mine will be like heaven on earth!"

She stood squinting her eyes into the sun, but there was no one on the road that she could see. She looked up, hearing a meadowlark sing as it soared heavenward into the deep blue sky, before it swooped low over her head. It was a joyous sound, yet she felt no joy of her own as she turned homewards down the side of the steep bank.

Then her heart raced as she heard the familiar sound. She knew it was him, for was he not singing her mother's melody, just a little out of tune? Though still not in sight, she knew he was not far off, so she started to run along the road towards the sound, running as if her life depended on it, so longing for the first sight of him.

Then suddenly he was there on the cart, still some way away from her, but she could see his dark hair lifted by the breeze and hear his dear sweet voice. She ran, and ran, shouting out to him, as she knew he had not yet seen her.

"Here! I am here!" she cried, her heart pounding as she continued to run. "I am here!" Then she stopped, as the lack of breath took her legs and she fell gently downwards to her knees, unable to go further. "I am here!" she gasped, and then she felt the vibration of the road, and looked up to see him running, running towards her, his smile so wide it would put the harvest moon to shame. In his haste, just as he reached her, he tripped over his own feet, falling almost on top of her, and they were rolling together, laughing and weeping, their first kisses beyond counting.

"I have no breath," she panted, " you must stop or I shall faint away!"

"I cannot stop woman, I am that glad to see your dear face, I may never stop!"

Then all was quiet as they held each other, kneeling in the dust of the road. "Sweet Christ, I shall never leave you again, " he said, taking her face in his hands, "these many weeks away from you have been torture to me, how did I ever think I could live without your sweet presence? you are the world to me, and I love you with every part of me!"

"And I you, my precious man," she said, "every day you were gone from me has felt like a lifetime, and the nights were long and empty without you. We must not be parted again, or I shall die of the loneliness, I am only complete when we are together."

"Dear God, that you should still love me," he said, "I wonder at the joy of it every day of my life!"

"Never, ever doubt it!" she said, reaching to gently stroke his face, "I would die before I ever denied it, and there will never be another for me, not as long as I live."

They stayed where they had both fallen, holding on tightly, as if never to let the other loose, rocking gently back and forth, their kisses mingling with their tears of joy. Then she tried to pull away from him, wrinkling her pretty nose. "Husband, do you know how you stink?" she laughed, "If I had been forewarned, I would not have run so swiftly towards you! Dear God, get yourself downwind of me!"

"A fine welcome wife," he replied, "though I have lived with the bull so long its stench has become my own, and goes almost unnoticed by my nose! It has been four days since I bathed, and there was so little water, it barely washed the crust from me, though my hosts did as well as they could for my comfort."