EIGHTEEN

She stood and watched while he climbed atop the waterwheel and took down the sails, working in haste to finish the job before the lull in the storm passed and the wind picked up.

Julia could not do much to help, except pluck the sails from the river when he dropped them, snagging them with his billhook before pulling them to shore.

"The river current was not enough to push the wheel, so I thought if I used the wind as well, it might help. There was a small sailboat in the distance, and so I thought of using sails," Romein explained, letting another sail fall into the water.

She waded in up to her knees and hooked it, dragging the sail out of the river. She wondered if it was her sailboat he'd seen, for most fisherman took their boats to sea, where they might net a finer catch than a few river fish. She had only her own supper to catch, while they had whole families to feed.

"But as you say, I must be doing something wrong. I have never seen a sailboat torn asunder like these were." Romein frowned at the last sail, before tucking it under his arm to wade ashore.

"That is because few fishermen are foolish enough to take their sailboats out in a gale, and if they do, they reef their sails, not run before the wind. A sail must move, to catch the wind as it changes..." Julia shook her head. It had been seven years since she'd learned to sail, and she did most things by instinct now, for the old fisherman who'd taught her had not been a man of many words. She could not talk the miller into being a fisherman, any more than her words could wish a new sail into existence.

Romein reached her side, then turned to regard the water wheel. "So what you're saying is that I must look more closely at a sailing boat, and rig the sails to the wheel accordingly..."

"No! If you want a wheel to turn in the wind, then you make a wheel that catches the wind, like the one the ponies turn in the mill yard, and then somehow make that turn the other wheel that you want..." Oh, this was even worse. Now she was trying to teach milling to a miller, for heaven's sake, when she scarcely understood how one wheel could move another, even when she watched them in action.

Romein's mouth dropped open. "Oh my God, you truly are an angel. A saint sent from heaven itself. Of course. We use sails, but we also use wheels and cogs, axles and gears. Then get those to turn the waterwheel and..." He seized her shoulders and kissed her.

Julia's heart stopped. An eternity passed, though it was but a moment, before he released her, and she dared to breathe again.

"Forgive me, dear angel, for such a passionate kiss of peace, but I was overcome with gratitude. Tonight, I shall attempt to draw what your divine inspiration has made appear in my head, and you shall tell me if it will sink or sail."

She might be able to breathe, but her voice had not yet returned, so Julia only nodded as Romein gathered up the sails to take them inside, where they would be safe from the storm. But the storm brewing within her breast, sparked by that kiss, would prove far more dangerous.