your time and I am sure they will come back to you.”
She sighed and her head bobbed up and down in agreement.
After she grew tired of tossing stones, she hiked her dress to her knees and ventured into the water. She gasped, her eyes going wide.
“Yes, it is cold. It’s only May now. Remember that we used to wait until June or later before we went swimming.”
He sat on the ground, his hands stretched out behind him, and watched as she skipped through the water. She kicked it. Twirled. Grinned. Her happiness spilled over to him and he laughed easily at her antics.
Then she pointed to the woods.
“You wish to walk?”
Anna nodded and grabbed his hand, urging him to his feet.
“We will need to tread carefully,” he told her. “You have no shoes. I will see if Coral can bring some. I know you and Dalinda switched gowns sometimes but I can’t recall you doing the same with shoes.”
She shook her head furiously and he gathered that their feet were not of a similar size.
Tucking her hand through the crook of his arm, he said, “Come then. Let us explore.”
They went into the woods, daylight coming and going based upon the thickness of the trees. Anna seemed happy and Dez decided they should spend as much time as possible outside the cottage.
Then she froze, tilting her head slightly. Her brow creased in concern. Then she took off, running like a wood nymph. He followed, calling after her to slow down, and finally caught up to her when he saw her kneeling.
As he came closer, he heard the noise she must have heard before. A fox keened eerily, its paw caught in a trap. Anna looked at it, desperation in her eyes, begging Dez to do something. He recalled how she had always found hurt animals and birds in the woods and brought them back, keeping them in the Shelton stables and nursing them back to health.
“You want me to free it?” he asked.
She pointed at the fox and then jabbed her thumb into her chest several times.
“You want to care for it?”
Anna rewarded him with a radiant smile.
A hundred things could go wrong. The fox could bite either of them. Attack them. It might be rabid. He didn’t want to take such a risk but looking at Anna let him know he had no choice. Dez unknotted his cravat and, taking the ailing fox unaware, quickly slipped it around the animal’s jaws and tied it.
“This is so it won’t bite us,” he said.
Understanding dawned in her eyes. She went to her hands and knees and then lay next to the frightened animal, softly stroking its fur. The fox calmed and Anna placed her hands on its body, bringing her head to rest gently between the fox’s ears. Dez took hold of the trap and pulled with all his might. The fox hissed as he freed it. Anna tightened her grip, her body draped on the injured animal, keeping it in place.
He whipped a handkerchief from his pocket and bound the bleeding paw. Somehow, the fox must sense they were trying to help it and the creature stopped struggling. Anna lifted her head and kissed the fox between its ears over and over, petting it with both hands. Then she scooped it up.
Fear filled him, the thought of a hurt, wild animal slashing her. But Anna had always had a way with animals and the fox seemed to know the person who held it had a heart for the hurt.
It struck him that Anna herself was a wounded animal.
She walked slowly back to the cottage, nuzzling the fox. They arrived and went inside. She motioned what he thought was towel and he retrieved one, wrapping the animal in it with her help, only its paw sticking out. His cravat had held the animal’s snout, keeping the fox from biting them.
“We need to clean the paw,” he said.
She nodded and he began gathering items to do so. Pouring water in a basin. Finding ointment that Coral had brought for Anna’s wrists and bruising, which Dez had forgotten to use after her bath.
“Hold her head, Anna.”
She looked at him questioningly.
“The fox is a vixen,” he shared. “I saw her teats as we secured her in the towel.”
Anna looked dismayed.
“Yes, she must have a litter of kits. We’ll need to tend to her and then release her so she can go back to them.”
Nodding, she stroked the fox’s head, pressing more kisses upon it.