“All it takes is a bit of tending, a stir, more fuel, and it’ll burn day and night and night and day, give you light and warmth.”
“You could forget to stir it, or run out of fuel.”
Laughing, he nuzzled at her neck. “Then you’d be careless, and shame on you for it. Love needs tending, is what I’m saying. It’s some work to keep the light and the warmth, but why would you want to be cold in the dark?”
“No one would want to, but it’s easy to forget to tend things.”
“I expect sometimes both tend, and other times one may tend more as the other forgets for a bit, then it might shift over again.”
It was all a matter of balance, he thought, with some care and effort tossed in.
“What’s easy isn’t always what’s right, and it may take a reminder here and there. Over it all, Meara, I’ve never known you to just settle on the easy. You’ve never been afraid of the work.”
“What I can lift or carry or clean or put my back into, no. But emotional work is another matter.”
“I haven’t seen you shirk on that area either. You don’t credit yourself near enough. Friendships take tending as well, don’t they? How have you managed to remain such good, strong friends, not only with me, but Branna, Boyle, Fin, now Iona? Then there’s family,” he said before she could comment. “And families take considerable tending. You’ve done more than many would for yours.”
“Yes, but—”
“And grumbling about it doesn’t matter,” he said, anticipating her. “It’s the doing that counts at the end of the day.”
He kissed her between the eyes. “Trust yourself.”
“That’s the hard part.”
“Well then, practice. You didn’t learn how to ride a horse by standing back and wondering if you might fall off.”
“I’ve never in my life fallen off a horse.”
“There, you see my point in it all.”
It was her turn to smile. “Aren’t you the clever one?”
“That makes you the lucky one, to have such a clever man in love with you. With patience enough to let you practice until you catch up.”
“It makes my heart shake when you say it,” she admitted. “It makes me so afraid when you say it to me my heart shakes.”
“Then you’ll tell me when it stops shaking and grows warm instead. Now try to sleep again.”
“Here?”
“Here’s where we are, and we’re cozy, aren’t we? And the fire’s nice. Do you see the stories in the fire?”
“I see the fire.”
“There’re stories in the embers, in the flames. I’ll tell you one.”
He spoke of a castle on a hill, and a brave knight on a white stallion. Of a warrior queen skilled with bow and sword who rode the sky on a golden dragon.
All so fanciful, she thought, and so pretty she nearly saw what he drew with his words.
And she drifted off to sleep again with a smile on her face, and her head pillowed on his shoulder.
* * *
IT TOOK THREE DAYS BEFORE SHE WAS ABLE TO BE UP AND awake more than down and asleep. She spent the whole of the first day in bed, on the sofa, or doing what small chores Branna would assign her. But by the second, she felt able to return to the stables for part of the day, help with grooming, feeding.
And made her apologies to her coworkers.