Cuckoo in the Coven

she asked, pulling the baggy shirt on and joining him close to the mouth of the cave.

“If it stays like this, the Gloriana won’t be able to come into dock.”

The waves were wild. “Because of the rocks?”

Her thoughts raced. She’d learned about the rocks from local historical accounts. They were filled with tales about ships getting into difficulty at the jaws of the rocks outside the harbor, large and dangerous stony outcrops known as the Bedruthen Steps. Would this keep his ship at bay, and would she have more time with him as a result? Sunny felt a wave of longing spring up at the very idea, her heart aching for every precious moment she might spend with him.

“The rough seas will hold them off. The Gloriana might not be able to come into the bay until the morrow.” He pulled on his clothes as he spoke. “I’ll go up to the headland to take a look.”

While he was gone, Sunny darted out to the shore’s edge and splashed her face with icy water, then she sat inside the mouth of the cave and tried to work out what the hell had happened to her.

As logically and rationally as she could, she worked through events to see if she could figure out how she’d traveled back in time. There were the dreams—she couldn’t discount them. Some element of destiny was being played out, for sure. But there was more. She’d wished for him to be real as she fell asleep the night before. He said he wished for a wench.

Was it the key, that the two wishes fulfilled one another?

How would she travel back? It had to be by the same means. Therefore she had to wish it. At the cottage? Did it have to be there? They’d both been there when it had happened, she supposed.

When Cullen left on his ship, she would go back to the cottage and wish. A shiver passed right through her bones when she considered what might happen if it didn’t work, if she was left here alone, without him, but in his time. The idea of him leaving was, in itself, making her despondent, let alone the rest.

“There’s no sight of the ship and no hope for several hours with the weather like this.”

She jumped at the sound of Cullen’s voice and looked up to see him coming back into the cave, his hair damp and windswept.

He stared at her silently for a moment, as if deep in thought, before rejoining her. “Might as well rest up and eat. I’ll check again in a while.”

Sunny looked at his bag of goodies with curiosity. What would the food be like?

“Tell me more about the place you are from,” he encouraged and opened up his knapsack to share the food with her.

He pulled out a bundle wrapped in a cloth and untied it. Inside was a rustic loaf resembling a rock. It looked toothsome, nonetheless, and next to it a hunk of cheese. Intrigued, Sunny took the offering when he broke the bread and cheese in half. It tasted good and Sunny tucked in, realizing she was indeed hungry.

The wind wailed outside. They huddled together, sharing the meager meal and talking. Gradually, as the day passed, she began to tell him about life in the future, her time, her version of Raven’s Landing and the cottage.

“So you own the cottage in your world, it belongs to you and you alone?”

She smiled, touched by his interest. “Yes, it was my grandmother’s house and when she passed on she left it to me. I’m renovating it. It had fallen into disrepair. Time has taken its toll. There’ve been many different owners, some with dreadful ideas of what might look good in a house.” She grimaced.

That made him laugh.

“I’m trying to make the house alive again, and it needs to be sound before winter. Most of the jobs I can do myself, others I need to hire someone to do.”

“You do this alone and you don’t have servants?” He looked amazed.

She laughed. “Not many people have servants in the future. It seems lazy and wrong to our world. Only the idle rich and royalty still do so.”

He listened attentively. “Is that why you wanted to know when the cottage was built, because it’s yours?”

“Yes, exactly. No one in the neighborhood seems to know and I was so keen to find out. Now you’ve given me the answer.”

“Only that?” He lifted one eyebrow quizzically.

“No, much more than that...Cullen, I’ve had the best time...”

“I, too.”

She watched him thoughtfully, the pair of them quiet as they took each other in. Something inside her felt full, yet ached for more. “And your life, what’s it like? Tell me about yourself.”

“I am Cullen Thaine, the second son of a nobleman, so I rest easily within my family. I oversee Hollingswell, the family’s Cornish country estate, alongside my father, but the true responsibility falls to my older brother.”