The area around the harbour was so crowded it was hard to find a place to stand. Sarie and Emily took Laurel’s parents into the bar of the Ship Inn. Laurel and her friends climbed up on some pilings to look out over the crowd.
“Have you heard from Gwin? That stupid council meeting should be over by now,” Laurel whispered in Aisling’s ear.
“I haven’t heard anything, but remember how time runs different there? Still, I thought we would have heard something by now.” Worry furrowed Ash’s forehead.
“No sense worrying about what we can’t change,” Gort said. “Here come your parents.” He nodded toward the noise and lights of the Inn.
Anna handed around take out cups of coco, while the adults held dark glasses of Guinness. Colt made a face as he took a sip. “I think I’ll try some of the local beer next, maybe one of those ones with the weird name. Maybe a Doom Bar or a Proper Job.” He grinned at his wife.
Emily joined them. “I just talked to Elvira, they’re almost ready to make the announcement.”
“What announcement?” Anna wanted to know.
“They make a big announcement in the bar that the Starry-Gazey Pie is ready to be served,” Sarie said. “Let’s get in there so we get a chance at some of the first pieces.” The adults shoved their way through the crowd and into the Ship Inn. Laurel and her friends stayed at their vantage point.
“They’ll bring some for us,” Coll assured Laurel.
A man emerged from the Ship Inn holding a huge pan over his head. A loud cheer went up from the crowd. From her vantage point Laurel got a good look at the massive browned crust, but her stomach flipped at the sight of the fish heads and tails sticking up out of the crust. Dead blank eyes staring upward.
“You aren’t supposed to eat the fish, are you?” She swallowed, unable to pull her gaze away from the fish heads. “What kind are they, anyway?”
“They’re pilchards. Tom Bawcock is supposed to have brought in seven kinds of fish for his Starry-Gazey Pie, but it’s only made with pilchards now,” Coll said.
“You don’t have to eat the fish if you don’t want to,” Ash told her.
“See why they call it Star-Gazey Pie, though?” Coll leaned forward on his perch. “Just look at those poor buggers.”
The man disappeared back into the building. Laurel wasn’t sure she’d be able to get any bit of the pie past her lips. Ash jumped beside her and almost bumped Laurel off the piling. She swivelled around to see what happened.
Gwin Scawen sat on Ash’s knee, clutching the pocket of her jacket to keep from falling. “Gwin, what happened?” she demanded.
“Good even to you, Mistress Laurel,” the little man said formerly.
Laurel sighed and remembered her manners. “Hello, Gwin. How are you tonight?”
“It is fine, I am. Thanks for asking,” he replied.
“Gwin has news for us,” Aisling said.
Laurel found Coll’s hand and gripped it tightly. They have to have ruled in Vear’s favour, they have to. She willed the piskie to get on with it and tell them what the verdict was. He seemed more interested in arranging himself comfortably tucked inside Aisling’s jacket.
“Are you ready, now?” Ash smiled indulgently as the piskie.
“Yes, Mistress Aisling, my flower. I am ready to relate my tale.” He paused to clear his throat. “The Grand Council convened and heard the appeal which the Council of Alba put forward on Vear’s behalf, as they agreed to. It was a long and tedious affair. The Council of Kernow wasn’t happy at all, they weren’t, with having their ruling brought into question. They argued long and loudly and I thought they had tipped the scales in their favour before the selkie even had a chance to speak. But then his turn came and he spoke most eloquently, so he did. He confessed to breaking with tradition and common sense and falling in love with a mortal. The Council of Kernow hissed with pleasure at that admission, they were ready to start celebrating right then and there, so they were. But the selkie continued, he brought up all the old bad blood between some of Kernow council members and himself. That set the Grand Council members to thinking, so it did. Then he called Morgawr, the sea serpent, to speak on his behalf. You know, Morgawr, he can be quite amusing when he sets his mind to it. He spun them quite a tale, told how he had just happened to be swimming and fishing near where the Council of Kernow were holding a secret meeting. Oh, they protested when they heard that, the Kernow members, but the Grand Council ruled they wanted to hear what he had to say. The sea serpent related how they’d conspired to blacken Vear’s reputation and get him banished. They didn’t like it one bit, that he consorted with the mortals and sometimes helped drive schools of fish toward the fishermen’s nets when times were hard. By the time Morg was finished speaking I was feeling much more confident.” The piskie paused and took a pull on a flask he produced from an inner pocket of his coat. “Tale telling is thirsty work. At any rate, I thought the hearing would end there and they’d hand down their decision. But no, then they called me forward. I wasn’t expecting it, I wasn’t. I can tell you my knees were fair knocking together, me speaking to the likes of the Grand Council. They asked me a lot of questions and I don’t rightly recall what I said in return, but it must have been suitable because the selkie was smiling and nodding when I was allowed to step down.”
“What did they decide?” Laurel couldn’t bear the suspense a moment longer.
“Hist, now. Here come the big ones.” Gwin whisked out of sight into the depths of Aisling’s coat.
“Here you go, princess.” Dad handed her a takeaway container with a goodly portion of pie on it. A fish’s dead eye stared up at her.
“Thanks,” she managed to say weakly.
Colt was holding his own plate gingerly and making no effort to sink his plastic fork into it. Anna was chewing carefully while Sarie and Emily dug into theirs enthusiastically. Coll, Gort, and Aisling were making good head way on their pieces. She noticed Ash sneaking bits into the front of her coat and Gwin’s thin fingers snatching the crumbs. She caught her eye and giggled. Sarie glanced at Aisling and smiled. Laurel was sure Sarie knew exactly what was going on. Laurel decided she might as well cowboy up and try the pie. It wasn’t likely she’d ever get another chance. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as she feared. If she just avoided looking the fish head in the eye and concentrated on the potatoes and egg it was actually pretty good. She grinned at Dad and silently challenged him to take a forkful. He grinned back and grimaced as he took a big bite. She giggled at the look on his face when the fish head in his piece fell against the side of the container.
Someone started singing the Tom Bawcock song she’d heard in Sarie’s kitchen. She remembered some of the chorus and joined in. There was a lot of good hearted jostling and dancing in the middle of the crowd. Anna took Colt’s hand and dragged him out into the heart of it. Emily wandered off to see if Elvira needed help in the kitchen as the pie was now being served in the restaurant as well as the bar of the Inn.
Gwin popped back out the moment they left. “As I was saying,” he wiped some crumbs from his upper lip and smoothed the lapels of his tattered jacket, “The Kernow craytures called foul, but the Grand Council was having none of it. They went into a conclave and it took ever so long for them to conclude it. Bella was clinging to the selkie so tight if they’d wanted to separate them someone would have had to cut off her arm. The selkie he had his arm around her, daring any of the Council of Kernow to come near her. Oh, it was a grand sight, so it was.”
“What happened? What did they decide?” Laurel couldn’t contain herself any longer.
“Patience is a virtue, Mistress Laurel,” Gwin chided her. “I’m coming to that, so I am. The Grand Council came back and they conferred with the Council of Alba and then met with the Council of Kernow for a bit. There were a lot of raised voices and shouting but it availed them nothing. Once the Grand Council has decided, nothing will sway them. The Kernow members had to stay and hear the decision whether they liked it or no. A lot of hissing and mumbling there was too. Then the Council Chief called Vear Du and Bella to come forward and hear the verdict. So they did, and they stood there bravely, so they did. The decision came down in Vear Du’s favour, but there were some conditions attached to it. Vear pulled the Chief aside and they nattered for the longest time. Bella was fair beside herself standing there all alone with the Kernow contingent hissing at her. Then Morgawr went to her side and I did, too.” He straightened his hat and pulled on his lapels. “Then the selkie came back and swung Bella around and around, laughing and kissing her. I came here to bring you the news straight away, so I did,” he finished proudly.
“Where is Gramma Bella?” Laurel demanded. “Daddy’s here and she should come and see him. I know I can make them see reason and make up. I just know it. But I have to get them together first.” She smacked her fist on her thigh in frustration.
“Patience,” Gwin reminded her. He stood on tiptoe balancing himself with a hand on Aisling’s shoulder. “There,” he pointed a long twiggy finger, “they come!”
Laurel whipped her head around so fast she fell off the piling. “Where is she?”
“I see a man who looks like Vear, but I can’t see your gramma,” Aisling reported.
“You’ll see, oh you’ll see, so you will,” Gwin said.
The crowd swirled around and in a gap in the revelers Laurel glimpsed Vear Du with his arm around a woman with her back to Laurel. “Gramma Bella,” she cried, starting to push through the crowd. “Gramma Bella!”
The crowd buffeted her from her course, but finally she reached the couple. “Gramma Bella,” she threw her arms around the woman. “I’m so happy you’re here!”
“Laurel, my pet,” Bella turned and hugged her. “Gwin Scawen said you’d be here. I need to talk to you about something important.”
“Hello, Laurel,” Vear’s voice was rich and deep, just like she remembered it. She hugged him too, inhaling the scent of tobacco overlaid with a faint odour of fish.
“Gwin said the council ruled in your favour, so you won. You can see Gramma whenever you want.” Laurel let him go but kept an arm around him and one around Bella. “Daddy’s here.” She looked up at Bella. Her grandmother’s face paled.
“He’s here? With Anna?” she whispered.
Vear tipped his head down. “Colton is here? My son is here?” The selkie’s voice broke on the last word.
“Yes, yes. Dad and Mom are both here. C’mon, we have to find them.” She began to tow them along behind her as she bulldozed her way through the crowd.
“Laurel,” Bella made her stop. “Don’t get your hopes up. Your father may not want to see me at all. It’s been a long time.”
“Too long, if you ask me,” Laurel insisted. “Look, there they are. Daddy!”
The tall man in the cowboy hat turned at the sound of her voice and started toward her, his large frame making a path for the blonde woman who followed behind. His pace slowed as he neared her and saw the couple standing with her.
“Daddy, look who’s here.” Laurel danced on her toes. “I found Gramma Bella.” She thought it might be too soon to tell him who else was there.
“Mother,” he tipped his head.
“Colton, I’ve missed you,” Bella’s voice broke and tears stood in her eyes. “I should have told you the truth right from the start, I should…”
“Daddy,” Laurel scolded him, “she’s your mom. You always say you shouldn’t hold a grudge, least that’s what you always tell me when I get mad.” She stamped her foot.
Anna pushed past her husband and gathered Bella in her arms. She hugged her mother-in-law and her daughter, and looked at her husband with a challenge in her eyes.
“I never stopped loving you, Colt,” Bella said.
Vear stepped forward before Laurel could stop him. “I think it is me you should be angry with and not your mother,” he began.
“Who are you?” Colt looked the man who equaled his height directly in the eye. “This is family business.”
“Family, yes. Well, you’ve got that part right. It was my moment of indiscretion that set all this in motion. I’m your father.”
Laurel hid her face in her mother’s shirt. This was all wrong. Dad and Gramma hadn’t had a chance to make up yet, and now Dad was gonna go ballistic. Her mother’s arm tightened around her.
“What kind of horseshit is this?” Colt demanded. “You’re not old enough to be my father. You’re younger than I am for God’s sake.”
“So it may appear. But I am and truly your sire. See the way your hair grows in a huge cowlick over your forehead. And you have a birthmark on your left hip that is shaped like a great seal. You carry my blood whether you like it or no. If you wish to mad at someone, be angry with me. I should have known better, I did know better. But I loved your mother, she wasn’t more than a child herself, and in danger of being shackled to a miserable excuse for a mortal. I love her still, I have never stopped.”
Laurel peeked at her father. His mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. Anna stepped toward Vear Du and offered her hand. “I’m Laurel’s mother and Colton’s wife so I suppose that makes you my father-in-law.” She smiled and the selkie hugged her, keeping a wary eye on his son as he did so.
Anna released him and took Laurel’s hand. “I think we should let your father and his parents have some time alone to come to terms with this. Let’s go find your friends.”
“But I need to stay. I can keep Daddy from flying off the handle, you know I can.”
Her mother shook her head. “No, Laurel. I know you have good intentions, but this is something your father has to work out for himself. Colt,” she laid a hand on his arm and he looked down at her with a bemused expression on his face, “why don’t you three go somewhere quieter and talk this out?”
For a moment Laurel thought he was going to refuse. He looked at Vear and shook his head, but followed the pair out of the harbour area. Laurel saw them go into Pam’s Pantry further down the beach. “I still think we should go with them,” she insisted, pulling on her mother’s arm.
Anna laid her hand over hers. “Laurel, you’ll understand better when you’re older. A proud stubborn man like your dad needs to do things in his own way in his own time. If we interfere he might never forgive Bella. I know he still loves his mother, but he’s got a lot of anger too. And as for meeting his father,” she shook her head and glanced toward where they’d disappeared, “that puts a whole new spin on things. This is something your dad needs to do on his own,” she repeated.
“What happened? Where’s your dad?” Coll asked when Laurel and her mom found them in the crowd in front of the Ship Inn.
“He’s talking with Gramma Bella and Vear,” she said unable to control the tremor in her voice.
“Oh, my.” Emily put a hand to her throat.
“It’s high time this nonsense between him and Bella was done with,” Anna said with a hint of steel in her voice.
Sarie smiled at her over Laurel’s head. “Anyone want something from the bar? I’m going in.”
“I’ll come with you.” Anna took her arm from Laurel’s shoulder. “You’ll be okay with your friends?” She turned to follow Sarie, but then turned back. “Don’t, under any circumstance, go looking for your father. Is that clear?”
Laurel nodded reluctantly. How did Mom know exactly what she was thinking? She’d planned to go find out what was going on as soon as she got the chance. Coll came beside her and slid his hand into hers. “Did he find out the selkie is his dad?”
“Oh yeah. Vear just blurted it out without any lead up or anything. He was trying to protect Gramma Bella, but still…”
“I don’t know what I’d do if my da suddenly came back,” Coll said. Laurel squeezed his hand and leaned her head on his shoulder.
“I wish mine would come back,” Gort said quietly. “Sometimes I‘d like for him to be here and other times I’d like to yell at him and tell what a scrote his brother was.” Aisling stroked his cheek and he turned his head and kissed her palm.
“Is Gwin still with you?” Laurel had a sudden thought.
“I am here, Mistress Laurel.” He popped out of Aisling’s hair where it fell unbound over her shoulders.
“Can you go and find out what they’re talking about? Dad and Vear, I mean. Or if they’re talking at all. Dad might have asked him out behind the barn by now.” Laurel chewed her bottom lip.
Coll looked down at her in puzzlement. “There’s no barn around here.”
“It just means he wants to settle things with his fists,” Laurel explained.
“Oh, that would not be good.” Gwin shook his head. “The big black one is ever so strong.”
“So is my dad, and he’s really tough when he’s mad,” Laurel argued.
“Why don’t you just go and see what you can see?” Aisling suggested.
“Of course, my flower. For you, anything.” The piskie stood up and then popped out of sight.
“Let’s just hope he doesn’t get so entertained he forgets to come back and tell us what he knows.” Aisling sighed.
“He is rather unreliable,” Gort observed.
“But very useful too,” Aisling defended her friend.
The crowds were thinning a bit and they moved closer to the stone building and leaned near the door to the bar. Anna and Sarie emerged with Emily in tow. Laurel took the cup of hot chocolate from her mom and wrapped her cold hands around it.
“No sign of them yet?” Anna asked.
Laurel shook her head.
“It all goes well,” Gwin Scawen materialized on Aisling’s shoulder. “Oh, my!”
“Hello, Gwin, you scamp,” Sarie greeted him before he could wink out again.
“Greetings, Mistress Sarie. Well met.” He hopped down to the cobbles and bowed low. “And to you, Mistress Emily.” He sidled over to stand by Anna’s feet. “Welcome to Kernow, Laurel’s mother,” he said. He bowed so low his nose touched the ground.
“Hello, Gwin Scawen. I want to thank you for helping Laurel when she needed it. I am in your debt.”
“Oh, no. Mistress Anna, ‘twas my pleasure, so it was. It is not often one such as I get to see the king of the faeries brought to heel as neatly as you did that day under the Tor.”
“Yes, well, that’s all still a bit of blur, although Laurel has told me what happened.” Anna looked slightly uncomfortable. “But tell me, you went and spied on Colt and his parents?”
“Now, Mistress Anna, spy is such a nasty word. Let us just say I popped in to see how things were progressing.”
“Fine, let’s say that then.” Anna raised an eyebrow at the piskie.
“There is no blood shed which is a fine thing. And no one has…what did you say, Mistress Laurel…gone out behind the barn. So things are progressing nicely. Bella is crying, but they are happy tears. The son is scowling, but he is listening to what the big black one is saying. That is all I know.
“Well, it’s something. At least Colt hasn’t stormed out of there yet.” Anna smiled at Laurel.
“Look, there’s Bella.” Sarie waved to attract her attention.
She joined them, her eyes a bit red rimmed but she was smiling. Bella gathered Anna and Laurel in a hug. “He says he understands a bit better now and he forgives me,” she reported.
“Where is Colt?” Anna searched the crowd with her eyes.
“I left him and Vear talking. There are somethings that they need to settle between them that don’t require my presence apparently,” she said.
“Is that wise?” Anna looked worried.
“I think that if there was going to be any fireworks it would have already happened,” Bella replied. “But there is something I need to talk to you and Laurel about. Afterward, I need to speak with you, Sarie.”
“Okay.” Anna drew Laurel and Bella away out of the lights and merriment around the inn. She stopped by the narrow entrance to Duck Street. Bella glanced around to be sure they were alone.
“Anna, thank you so much for getting Colton to come here. I feel we have finally begun to mend the rift between us. But that makes what I have to tell you all the more bittersweet.”
“What do you mean?” Anna asked, taking Laurel’s hand.
“As you know from Gwin, the Council ruled in our favour. So Vear and I can see each other as often as we wish. But without my knowledge, he made another bargain. One I’m not sure I approve of. It is weighted much more in my favour than in his.”
“What is it?” Laurel asked.
“It seems the great idiot has traded his immortality in exchange for a lengthening of my life,” she confessed. “By the time I knew of it, it was already done.”
“But what does that mean?” Laurel asked. It didn’t make sense to her at all.
“It means that sometime in the far away future Vear Du will fade away, in effect, he will die. I will also die, but many many years after I should.”
“What’s so bad about that? You get to be together, there’ll be lots of time for you and Dad to make up for all that lost time…” Laurel stopped at the look on Gramma Bella’s face.
“It’s not so simple. In order for me to have long life, we must live in the other worlds most of the time. Vear says I will actually get younger for the first few centuries.”
“Centuries?” Anna breathed the word, an astounded expression in her eyes.
Bella nodded. “In appearance I’ll go back to the girl I was when I first met him, all those years ago. But I will keep all my memories. As you know, Laurel, Vear doesn’t look much older than his early twenties, even now. But I won’t be able to be part of your life, to watch you grow up and see my great grandbabies. Only if you come to Cornwall and call to us using the talisman he gave you will I be able to see you.”
“I’ll tell my kids, and they can tell their kids so we’ll never forget you and you’ll get to know the future generations of our family,” Laurel said fiercely. “I’ll pass the talisman down from me to my kids and explain why it’s so important they do the same.”
“That might work, Laurel. At least it gives me hope. I do miss you terribly, but my heart has always belonged to Vear Du.”
“Is Dad okay with all this?”
“He’s trying to understand. I have left my house in Bragg Creek to you in your father’s trust until you’re old enough to decide if you want to live there or sell it. Vear is arranging things so there will be money transferred to cover the taxes and the costs for maintenance, with some over to make life easier for you and Colt, Anna, and some to put in a trust fund for you, Laurel.”
“I don’t want you to leave, Gramma. I just found you again.” Laurel threw her arms around Bella and buried her face in her shoulder.
“I don’t want to either, but the die is cast, so to speak. This is what I needed to tell you. But for tonight let’s enjoy the fun and each other’s company. Tomorrow is time enough for sadness,” Bella suggested.
“I wish I had your ability to just live in the moment,” Anna said to her mother-in-law.
“It’s something I learned so I wouldn’t throw myself off the bluff into the Old Man River,” Bella said with a touch of bitterness in her voice. “I was so terribly homesick for the longest time when I left here.”
“Let’s go see if your father is finished talking with Vear Du,” Anna said. She took Laurel’s hand and led her back toward the harbour. Bella walked at her other side.
When they found the others Colt and Vear were still missing. Bella and Sarie went off to speak privately. Laurel wondered how Sarie would take the news. She’d been a part of the story since the beginning and now it seemed their paths were really going in different directions. She managed to fill her friends in on what Gramma Bella told her without crying. She leaned on Coll for support and he snugged his arm around her shoulders.
“That’s some bargain he made,” Aisling said. “He must love your gramma a whole lot.”
“I can’t believe he gave up his immortality for her,” Gort looked over at the woman talking to Sarie, the light making a halo around her head.
“Oh, look. Here comes Dad.”
Laurel turned to tell her mom, but Anna was already making her way toward her husband. The tall man wrapped his arms around her as if she was the most precious thing on earth. Laurel was surprised and alarmed to see his shoulders shake with sobs. Anna stroked his head and kissed his ear. Laurel shrugged out of Coll’s embrace with a quiet apology and hurried over to her parents. She put her arms around her dad and hugged as hard as she could. “It’s gonna be okay, Dad.” She repeated over and over. Finally, her dad stroked her hair and kneeled down to hug her.
“Yes, it will be okay, princess. You’re right.” He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and took Anna’s hand with the other. With his wife and daughter on either side they went back to join Laurel’s friends who were just filling Emily in on the news.
Vear Du loomed up out of the crowd behind her dad. Laurel tried to smile but the pain in her chest just made her mouth twist. The selkie put his hand on Colt’s shoulder and he turned to greet him.
“It is time we were going, but I couldn’t leave without speaking with you once more.” He extended his hand and Colt took it. The two men held each other’s gaze and Laurel saw them tremble as they gripped their hands together. Finally, Vear pulled her dad into a bear hug and they hung on so long she began to wonder if they’d ever let go. Mom stood beside her with tears running down her cheeks. Finally Vear stepped back and Colton held his arms out to his mother. With an inarticulate cry, Bella gathered him in her arms. Laurel fought back the tears and Gort sniffed loudly behind her. Coll put his hand on her shoulder for support and she covered it with her own. Suddenly, Vear was in front of her. He bent down to her level and gazed at her face. “I think I will miss you most of all. So young and so brave. I would expect nothing else from my granddaughter. You also have a gift from me. Because of the blood that runs in your veins, you can never drown, no matter how rough the water. And you will live a long and healthy life, far longer than an ordinary mortal, for there is nothing ordinary about you.” He hugged her. Laurel tried to say something but her voice was drowned in her tears. “I know what’s in your heart, dear one. There is no need of words between us.”
He stood up and turned to where Bella still clung to Colt. “Come, my beautiful Bella. There is time for one last dance and song and then we must be going. Say your farewells for now. It is never goodbye between those who love as we do.”
He led her away into the crowd. Vear threw his head back and bellowed the words. A few villagers obviously knew him, but addressed him as Douglas.
“Why are they calling him by a different name?” Laurel asked Sarie, never taking her eyes off the couple.
“It’s a name he uses when he walks the fields of mortals,” she answered wiping a tear from her cheek.
“He’s ever so clever, so he is.” Gwin Scawen spoke from Aisling’s shoulder. “Douglas comes from Dubh Glas, which is dark or black water in the Gaelic. What better name for a selkie?”
Laurel nodded. Her gaze met Gramma Bella’s across the crowded square and she smiled. Vear tipped his dark head to her and led Bella in a series of intricate steps that took them to edge of the light.
“Go gently,” Laurel whispered, and raised her hand with the forefinger crooked to call down a blessing from heaven in a gesture she remembered learning from Gramma Bella in her childhood.
“Go gently,” her dad echoed from beside her.
The End
More Books by Nancy Bell from Books We Love
Laurel's Quest (The Cornwall Adventures Book 1)
A Step Beyond (The Cornwall Adventures Book 2)
Storm's Refuge (A Longview Romance Book 1)
The Selkie’s Song
Historical Horror
By N.M. Bell
No Absolution