A tear rolled down her cheek. She felt him kiss the top of her head and she could not resist putting her arms around him and letting him hold her more completely. Then she pulled away and dried her tears. "Will ye help me find a lad like ye to marry?"
Nothing could have made him more proud and he took her back in his arms and held her a little while longer. "I will do as best I can."
"But he must be a tall lad with good teeth for my mother's sake. He must be very strong, with…" She was still giving him her list of demands when he got her home and let her slide down off the horse.
Macoran smiled at Jirvel, even though she was still glaring at him, turned his horse and rode away a happy man.
"He promised to find me a good husband," Kannak announced as she walked past her mother and went inside.
"She be but fourteen," Jirvel whispered, as she watched Macoran turn his horse down the path toward the village.
*
It was time to do the marketing. They needed seeds for the spring planting a second new shovel, if they could find one and strong rope. Stefan hoped to surprise them by hanging a swing from the branch of an oak tree. If he could keep them from discovering what he was up to, it would be the perfect surprise.
This time, Jirvel wanted some time alone and promised to come on her horse later so Kannak and Stefan rode the same horse as they so often had in the past. "Up or around?" Stefan asked as they headed down the path.
Seated behind him, she playfully slapped his back, "I cannae believe ye asked me that. Ye know how I like to see the water from the top o' the hill."
"Still? Have ye not yet grown weary o' watching it?"
"I shall never grow weary. After all, I might see another sea monster."
He wasn't sure he believed her on that subject, but he let it pass and turned up the hill. "Why do ye find the water so fascinating?"
"I dinna know. It be constantly moving, first drawing out and then coming back in waves that curl with white foam on the edges. What do ye think makes it do that?"
"Tis the heartbeat o' the great dragon."
Kannak rolled her eyes. "If a dragon were that big, more than just the Vikings would have seen it by now."
"I feel another wager coming on."
"I could wager there are no dragons, but 'tis a wager I could not win and I do so like to win." She tightened her arms around him to keep from falling off the back of the horse as it climbed the hill and remained quiet for a time.