What is love?
Anno Domini 934
King’s Aethelstan invasion.
A forest at the north end of Scotland.
“We need to be faster, let’s go to the woods and try to hide there.”
Those were the words of Aedan to his family. The group of people were running from their chasers jumping and avoiding all sorts of hurdles. They got into the woods in hopes of losing their pursuers.
Aedan looked behind and then looked at the family members. There were ten, among them were elderly, adults, young ones, children, and a couple of babies. All of them were exhausted.
The hunt has lasted for hours now, and the killers will not stop.
Aedan knew their pursuers and was certain they would not halt until all of them were slain. The reason? It did not matter now. It was a stupid one, the one that comes from jealousy or coveting.
He looked at his father and his uncle and both agreed with a small bow of their heads.
“Father, uncle, we will mislead and try to stop our chasers, who knows? We might get lucky and slaughter them all.”
Both elderly men grinned
“May your words be the words of a prophet?” His father replied.
Aedan then embraced all his family and kissed his wife and children.
“Sandy, this is it, all of you will have to endure, survive and thrive so that our clan, The Wumiss may survive these horrible times.”
Sandy hugged her husband not wanting to let him go, she cried, and her silent tears were a scream with all her strength, a yell to the world that she was embracing her beloved husband for the last time.
Sandy and the family began to run upstream towards the north to what is called now Jhon O Groats while Aedan, his father and uncle began to course downstream to the region now known as Wick, running outside the water for the wolfhounds to catch their smell.
Sandy and the Wumiss clan were able to escape certain death, she knew in her heart that Aedan, her father-in-law, Angus, and his uncle, Ian, had made the ultimate sacrifice. She made an oath that fateful day while the Wumiss clan took a boat towards the island known now as Hoy.
“My beloved Aedan, my dear father and uncle, I swear here and now that we will survive, endure and thrive and one day, we will return to this land and claim to our loved ones that our clan is free, strong and proud Scottish!”
Anno Domini 1296
King Edward I 1st invasion of Scotland
Hoy Island
Alistair Wumiss was a happy man, his business was thriving, transporting goods to and from Hoy was a great move his family did a long time ago starting their business with a small boat owned by her great- great- Grandmother Sandy Wumiss. Now he had a 10-boat strong fleet, he was proud to say that almost the entire transportation of persons and goods to and from Hoy was done by his fleet.
“Oit lad, you seem to be cheerful today” remarked the innkeeper
“Yes, you can say that, please bring me the finest mead you have, not the one you sell to your clients but to me, your patron, heather honey mead!” Exclaimed Alister.
“Honey Mead for you Master Wumiss in a moment” the innkeeper disappeared for a couple of minutes bringing a jar and a mug.
“You are a holy man, master innkeeper” Alistar shouted joyfully.
Alistair drank the beverage as if it was not tomorrow and after some jars, he looked at the place, everybody was drinking happily but his eyes stopped in a small thin figure covered by a hood at the far corner of the room. Why did his eyes stop there? He did not know.
The woman stared back while a man approached him and whispered something to his ear. The woman stood up, gave him a second look and walked away from the hostel followed by the man.
Alistair gave the innkeeper some shillings and stormed out of the hostel looking for that mysterious woman he just saw. He found them waiting for him at the nearest fountain.
“Thank you for accepting our meeting,” said the man.
“My lady Adeline would like to have a word with you in the hopes that you would be able to help her” the man added.
“I have no problem if there is a profit, dear master.” Alistair answered with a small bow.
The young lady took her hood off, and Alistair saw the most beautiful woman his eyes laid upon. He approached and asked: “How can I be of service to my lady?" he said courteously.
“My father and I need your services to take us from here to Calais,” Adeline said.
“That can be arranged my lady, do you have the means to pay for the service?” replied Alistair, not taking his eyes off hers. Her father gave him a small bag with twenty gold pounds in it.
Alistair was surprised to see the small fortune in his hands.
“Sorry my lady, master, my service is not that expensive” Alistair told them.
Adeline stepped forward and spoke, “We need the boat for only the two of us and we need you to transport us as fast as possible.”
Alistair looked at her and her father and nodded, “I understand, enough said. When do you want to depart?”
Adeline answered immediately, “Right now.”
Alistair stated, “Right now, won’t be possible, but in a couple of hours I will gather my crew, and the high tide will be perfect for us to depart.”
A small smile depicted Adeline’s beautiful face. “Thank you, sir,” she replied.
Days after that encounter, on board the “Caledonian Dream,” the newest cog of Alistair’s commercial fleet, Alistair was having a dialog with “charming Adeline” as he referred to her in private to his crew of seven men.
“My lady seems that you woke up in good spirits today” he told the young lady.
“This beautiful boat, the sea breeze and the hope that I will be home makes me have nice thoughts master Wumiss.”
“Alistair,” said Alistair.
“Alistair,” replied Adeline.
“I hope this small and humble boat is comfortable enough for you, my lady.”
“Adeline,” said Adeline.
“Adeline,” replied Alistair.
Both looked at each other for an awkward instant and they continued with their morning chat with those eyes of a lad and a girl falling in love with each other.
“Master Wumiss!” Shouted one of the crew members.
“English war boats approaching from the East” he continued.
Alistair turned his head to face Adeline, “We will try to evade them” and ran to take the rudder.
Adeline followed him.
“It will not be wise to be here with me Adeline, my lady, please go to your chambers and stay there. I will have one of my crew men to protect you if needed.”
Adeline embraced him and gave him a long kiss before one of the crew men took her to her chambers.
Alistair was a consummated mariner, the pursuit lasted much longer than it normally took the English vessels to hunt them down. Alistair managed to go for the coast and maneuver the vessel through the rocky treacherous shoreline that made one of the English ones crash into the rocks. But it was inevitable, after hours of chasing the “Caledonian Dream” they were ready to be boarded by the English.
Alistair shouted to his crew, “We will defend our passengers to the very end, dead to the English!” “Dead to the English!” the crew shouted back.
A cloud of arrows was shot at the cog and took the life of Adeline’s father and one crew member. Adeline screamed and then came out to the deck and positioned herself between the English soldiers and Alistair’s men. The English fighters stopped the attack.
“Adeline, my lady, what are you doing?” Alistair exclaimed.
Adeline looked at him with the loving yearning of a woman in love.
“Alistair, my love, I am sorry that I put you in this position. I was blinded by the happy days I lived with you; but now I know we cannot be together, my love, but please remember you are the man my heart belongs to.”
“Adeline, my love, I will protect you, please allow me to do so” replied Alister with sadness.
“We will all die here,” said Adeline, looking at her father’s dead body.
“I will kill them all my love!” Alistair answered her.
“Alistair, I do not want you to die, I love you that much. I do not want your crew members to die for me. They, the English, will not hurt me, King Edward wants to negotiate with my uncle the king of France. Please live for me, get stronger, continue with your great- great- Grandmother wish and thrive!”
Years after that incident Alistair Wumiss of the Wumiss clan was the richest noble man of Scotland. Some said that he was blessed, others said that he made a pact with the devil, some others said he had the protection of someone high in the court of England or France.
Alistair was walking on the streets of Hoy as he did years ago and saw that old hostel where he met the love of his life. He could not resist and went in. He was not surprised to see the old innkeeper from that distant past. “Master Innkeeper, remember me? Please a jar full of your tastier Mead! I want to sit here and remember better days.”
“A jar of the best Honey Mead for you Lord Wumiss.” The innkeeper came back a couple of minutes later with a jar of Mead and a mug.
“Lord Wumiss, what happened to the young lady of years before?” asked the Innkeeper
“She was transported to her destiny, and it was the best time of my life” replied Alister.
“What is love but to love someone without fear even if your beloved cannot love you back” Alistair heard the innkeeper say.
Bio:
I am a biochemical engineer in water resources. Moved from Mexico to Canada where I started a new career. I love fiction, and science fiction and just started creating my short stories.