the other women. And she had Niall. Did he count as a friend, or a romantic prospect? The former, right? It had to be. He certainly hadn’t given her any signs that he was interested… not that she’d be able to pick up on them even if he had.
It was a rare sunny day, and she found it was brightening her spirits considerably to feel the warmth on her skin as she trotted down the stairs and across the docks with packed lunches for herself, Niall and Eamon. But this time, Niall came striding to meet her, a broad grin on his face as he extended a hand to her.
“I have a surprise for you,” he said, that smile twinkling in his eyes and making her feel weak at the knees.
“You do?”
“Aye. I’ve managed to delegate my duties for the afternoon. What would you say to a sailing lesson, given the weather’s so fine?”
Her eyes widened. “That would be amazing. Are you sure you can spare the time?”
“Da told all the fishermen they can go away and leave us alone,” Eamon piped up brightly, his eyes sparkling. “We’re going on an adventure to find the Monster!”
“I’m sure she’ll want to say thank you for all the crusts you’ve been giving her,” Helen said seriously, drawing a broad grin from Eamon.
So she found herself in the middle of Loch Ness on a little fishing craft. Barely big enough for the three of them, but sturdy nonetheless, the little boat cut through the water, Niall’s strong hands on the ropes and rudder keeping it on course. They sailed a distance from the docks, and she watched the castle shrink and shrink, keeping one ear on Niall’s explanations of how the ropes worked to control the sail and steer the ship. It all sounded fairly straightforward — not that she’d feel confident operating a ship by herself. Not just yet, anyway. She did take control of a few of the ropes at Niall’s instruction, marveling at how much control it was possible to exercise over the little vessel by tugging ever so gently on the ropes.
“It’s a bit like driving,” she said, surprised. “Driving a car, I mean.”
“Oh, aye? Those are the beasts with the power of a hundred horses?”
She’d tried to explain the concept of horsepower to Niall, who had found the whole thing very amusing. Sometimes she wondered if he thought she’d invented cars completely.
“Do they travel on water as well as on land, then?”
“Not usually, no,” she admitted, thinking with a grin of her own car crashing into the river. That memory, traumatic as it was, seemed even now to belong to a different life. “But I never thought of boats as being so precisely steered.”
“Aye, if you’re a good sailor. And luckily for you, you’re sailing with the best.” He took the ropes from her hands, a broad, smug grin on his face, and she felt a tingle run down her spine as their hands brushed. She pressed her palms together, feeling the roughness of the rope on her hands still… no wonder Niall had such calloused hands, if he spend his days doing this.
“I’m going to need to toughen my hands up if I’m going to be any good as a sailor,” she said, looking down at her reddened palms.
“Ah, blisters turn to callouses soon enough. Isn’t that right, Eamon?”
“My hands are the toughest,” Eamon said proudly, pulling his fists out of the water he’d been trailing them in and thrusting them toward Helen. Dutifully, she looked at his tiny palms — sure enough, he had a collection of callouses.
“Just like your dad.” She grinned, glancing up at Niall, whose soft smile as he looked down at his son was one of the most touching things she’d ever seen.
But the pleasant moment was cut short when Helen’s eye was caught by an unusual shape on the water. This far out, they weren’t anywhere near the other fishing boats, so her attention was drawn by the darkness on the surface of the water… and her stomach twisted when she got a proper look at it. Sure enough, it was another raft, just like the two she’d seen washed up on the beach… and to her dismay, she was pretty sure this one was sporting bloodstains just like the one she’d seen the week before.
“Niall,” she said softly, her eyes on the raft. “Maybe Eamon would like to take over manning the ropes?”
Eamon leapt to his feet, the boat rocking