‘I … I…’ he stammered as she mounted her horse, the awkwardness returning to him in a paralysing rush.
Panic dug its freezing shards of shrapnel into his flesh as she wheeled her horse around, and a flighty desperation took hold of him. He understood the sheer impossibility of the fantasy he was entertaining in his mind, but something forcefully insistent was screaming through the wall of doubt that he must not let her go.
‘Wait m’lady!’
‘It’s Aurora, silly!’ she laughed, flashing him a beguiling smile over her shoulder.
‘Aurora,’ he said, speaking her name with a nervous reluctance that was nonetheless bolstered with quiet confidence and resilience, ‘allow me tae escort ye back to your father’s estate. Please m’lady. There … there, um, there has been talk ay a great wolf in these woods, y’see,’ he lied.
‘A wolf, William? There have been no wolves in these woods for a hundred years!’
‘Aye, tha’s what most people think,’ he continued, his cheeks reddening to a deep crimson. ‘But the woodsmen at Sir MacTaggart’s estate ha’ been talking ay having seen one in recent weeks. A big, mean-looking monster, aye. I couldnae let you ride unescorted through these darkening woods with the risk ay wolves about, m’lady.’
‘Really William?’ she asked with a sceptically raised eyebrow, and a deepening of her delectable dimples. ‘And how would you protect me, should we come across this savage wolf of the woods? You have neither musket nor sword on your person.’
‘Why, I’d offer m’self tae the wolf. He could eat me while you got away!’
Aurora chortled at this, and the deep orange afternoon light danced in her faery eyes.
‘You are quite the epitome of chivalry, William! But would Sir MacTaggart not be most upset should you return well after dark with one of his horses? My father’s estate is six leagues from here, and that will take you very far from your home.’
‘That doesnae matter. It is my duty as a gentleman tae escort you safely home. I, well, apologies, m’lady, as you can see I’m no esquire, just a lowly stable hand, but Sir MacTaggart has done his best tae instil some manners intae the likes ay me.’
‘I do not wish to have your inevitable punishment hanging over my head, William, and I shall be quite all right to make it home on my own. This is by no means my first ride in these woods.’
Desperation once again stabbed through William’s belly with the unbending force of a lance.
‘I insist, Aurora. Please,’ he pleaded.
An inviting sparkle danced in her eyes.
‘Well, if you insist, I suppose that I cannot deter you. Come, we must depart at once then, for the sun is already beginning to sink low in the sky.’
‘At once, as you command!’ William cried. With nimble agility he sprang onto his horse, eliciting a gasp of surprise and an impressed giggle from Aurora.
‘You are quite the horseman!’
‘‘It was no idle boast!’ William replied, grinning broadly as confidence bloomed within him. ‘I’m the finest horseman ay Sir MacTaggart’s estate!’
‘Well you certainly have some skill in mounting a horse … but what of the riding of one?’
‘I’ll show you, Aurora! Which way lies your father’s estate?’
‘South, along the course of this stream.’
‘Then south I’ll go! Catch me if you can!’
William took off at a gallop, whooping with glee as he did, and Aurora laughed and spurred her own horse on behind him. He raced through the forest at full tilt, leaping his mare over rocks and fallen logs, ducking and dodging the branches and twigs that slashed like sabres and lunged like bayonets at his face and body. Raw exhilaration fuelled his joyously hammering heart, like some eager steam engine stoked with the finest grade coal, the sensation amplified by the heady, carefree ecstasy and exuberance of youth, and he let out a wordless shout of unbridled joy as the wind battered his chest and face and rippled through his hair.
Of his friends, the former chimney sweeps who had been sent to Sir MacTaggart’s estate, William had turned out to be the best rider of the bunch. He had taken to riding like a duck to water, and nowhere did he feel more alive, carefree and energised than when he was tearing along at breakneck speed on horseback. Sir MacTaggart had noticed the boy’s talent from an early age, and had given him special privileges with regards to the horses, eventually making him head of the stables and allowing him the freedom to ride where he liked once a week.
After a few minutes of furious charging through the trees, William came to a section of the forest where the stream split in two. Here both watercourses broadened and deepened; the horse would have to plunge through the water, which looked as if it would come up to its flanks.
‘Aurora’s dress’ll get soaked, it will,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Aurora,’ he called as he turned to look behind him. ‘I—’
There was nothing behind him, however, but the long, shifting shadows thrown by the dying light.
Oh no … William, you half-wit! You’ve gone and left the poor lass behind with your bloody stupid pell-mell riding!
He turned his mare around and sped back in the direction from whence he had come, peering frantically through the falling gloom to try to catch whatever glimpse he could of Aurora.
‘Aurora!’ he shouted hoarsely as he rode. ‘Aurora!’
He crested a rise in the land, and a wash of relief immediately slowed his magma-pumping heart as he caught sight of her. He sprang off his horse, landing with acrobatic ease on the stony ground, and then knelt down and bowed his head low as she approached.
‘M’lady … I, I must apologise most profusely. It was a terribly ungentlemanly thing for me tae dae, gallopin’ off like that like a hound after a hare. I beg your forgiveness.’
She reined her horse up next to him, removed
