Ruth ran over and yelped up at them. They both looked down and laughed. The tension had final y lifted, and the air had been cleared.
“Wel ,” Caleb smiled, “I remembered Edgartown, and so I thought I’d bring these horses, in case you’d be wil ing to ride with me again.”
“Wil ing?” Caitlin asked. “There is nothing I’d love more.”
“There is a place I’d like to take you,” Caleb said. “We could fly, but I think it’d be more romantic to ride, and to hike.”
Caitlin smiled wide. She couldn’t wait.
They both mounted the horses at the same time, Caitlin picking up Ruth as she did, and they took off at a trot along the beach.
The waves crashed al around them as they rode, and Caitlin couldn’t help thinking of Edgartown. A different time, a different continent, a different century, a different life. Yet stil , somehow, it al felt so connected, as if it were right here, and as if it had only happened yesterday.
They rode and rode, along the beach, in and out of the waves. There was not a person in sight.
It eventual y became late in the day, and the sun final y broke through the clouds, spreading out in a gorgeous sunset.
Caleb led them around a bend, and then turned away from the water, up to the base of a hil . He stopped, and Caitlin came up beside him.
They dismounted, and as they did, the horses gal oped away.
Caitlin watched them go with concern.
“Don’t worry,” Caleb said. “They’re wild. They’l always come when I cal for them. And from here on in, we won’t need them.”
He took her hand and led her away from the beach, onto a narrow trail, winding its way up the hil side. They hiked through beautiful dune grass, lit up by the sun, Ruth on their heels. Caitlin wondered where he was taking her.
As they walked in silence, Caitlin had so many questions she wanted to ask him. But for now, she was content to just be with him. It felt so good just to be by his side, to have her life restored to her again.
Final y, they reached the hil top, and Caitlin was awestruck by the sight.
From this vantage point, high atop the hil , on a grassy plateau, she could see for miles. She saw the ocean stretching into the horizon, and in the other direction saw endless rol ing hil s and fields of wildflowers.
Caleb sat on the grassy plateau, and she sat beside him.
Ruth came up and sat with them, too.
They lay back together, and looked up at the sky, and she put her head in his arms. The sky was so blue, unlike any sky she had ever seen, as it began to enter that magical time between day and night.
Caitlin lost track of time as they lay there, quietly, taking in the universe.
Eventual y, Caleb slowly sat up. Caitlin did, too.
He looked at her with a seriousness and intensity that scared her, as if he were preparing to say something real y important.
He cleared his throat, and she thought for a moment that he even looked a bit nervous.
“Caitlin,” he began. He paused. “I just want to tel you how much you mean to me. I’ve never real y had a chance, with just the two of us, to look back and reflect. I just want you to know, that even if it weren’t for al this, even if we hadn’t met the way we had, I stil would have fal en just as much in love with you.”
Caitlin felt her heart soar. It felt so good to hear the words, to know that he loved her as much as she loved him. Now, with him at her side, and feeling the same way she did, she felt like they could do anything. Nothing in the world could hold them back.
Caleb cleared his throat again, and she thought he looked even more nervous. She couldn’t understand why.
“Caitlin,” he said, clearing his throat again. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
Caitlin wondered why he didn’t just come out and say it, whatever it was. They had known each other long enough.
Why was he standing on ceremony? Why was he so nervous?
Caleb opened his mouth to speak again, and at the same time he appeared to be reaching back for something in his pocket.
Suddenly, at just that moment, there was a tremendous screech in the sky, and they both stopped and looked up.
Right overhead, there was a huge falcon, circling them, and diving fast right towards them.
The bird came in so fast, seeming to dive right for their heads, that they had to both duck at the last second to keep from getting clawed. It landed just feet from them, on the grass.
It turned and stared at them with defiant eyes.
Then, after a moment, it suddenly took off again, its huge wings flapping so close to their faces, that Caleb and Caitlin had to duck again.
They both looked at each other in shock, as the huge bird flew off into the horizon.
They then turned and looked back in the grass, where the bird had been, and saw that it had left something.
It was a scrol . A message, Caitlin realized.
And as she looked closely at it, her heart stopped within her.
On the outside, in delicate, feminine handwriting, it read:
“For Caleb. My love.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
As Sam walked with Kendra down the marble, gilded hal s of Versail es, he was having a hard time concentrating.
After the two of them had met, and Pol y had rushed off, they had been left alone. Kendra hadn’t said anything else to him, but she had looked at him in such a way, that he felt she was beckoning him to stay with her.
So when she had turned, without a word, and had begun to slowly walk away, he felt like he should accompany her. He hurried to catch up, and had been walking beside her ever since. She hadn’t looked surprised that he had done so, and she had not asked him to leave. At the same time, she had not explicitly invited him, either.
She was a confusing person, hard to read. Sam marveled at how this woman—if he could even cal her that at 17—
already had such an effect upon him. After being transfixed by her eyes, a light, mysterious aqua blue, he had fal en hard, and had a hard time thinking of anything else. It was as if she’d had a power to transfix him.
And yet, he could sense, she was not one of his kind. She was a mere human. How could she have this kind of power?
He also could feel the huge sense of entitlement coming off of her. Clearly, she was a member of the royal family. It was apparent in the way she moved, the way she held her chin, the way she carried herself. She was clearly the type of person, he could tel , who was used to giving people orders since birth. He, too, felt that it was hard to do anything but fulfil her command while in her presence.