The ocean girl, p.27
The Ocean Girl, page 27
Muri shook her head. “I told them I wanted to be with you. We elected new kings.”
“I can’t believe you’re here. I worried you’d never come. That Bull would take over and trap you somehow.” He was stroking her face, wiping away the raindrops as they landed.
“No,” she said. “Bull stayed quiet.” She stopped Jack’s hand with her own as thunder boomed around them. “Let me get out of the water.”
Jack backed off the barest bit as Muri pushed herself up onto the wet rock in the downpour. The moment she was seated, she and Jack were tangled together again. As he held her to his chest, the heat deep inside him radiated out, and she willed it to spread to his fingertips and warm him from the inside as the rain drenched him from above.
She pulled away and flipped her tail up onto the rock beside them. The raindrops spattered against her. “It’s never going to dry,” she said, indicating her tail. She’d never dealt with needing legs in the rain. The humans had towels for drying themselves after bathing. “Maybe—”
Jack shifted to crouch on his feet, slid his hands beneath her, and lifted her in his arms.
Muri clung to him as he climbed over and up the slippery rocks with her. He went carefully, and a moment later, the green of the clifftop spread before her and the wind over the fields stung her wet cheeks. The tall grasses tossed as another roll of thunder shuddered.
Jack held her tight and strode up the bare path to the cottage. Rain slid down the window glass and stained the patio stones. The hyacinth flowers were bent to the soil, as if they were bowing as Jack carried her past.
She held on as he balanced her on his arm and unlatched the cottage door. The scent of a wood fire and human bread and warm comfort rushed over her, and a moment later, they were out of the rain and it was warm.
Jack lowered her onto a seat beside the door. “Wait here,” he said, kicking off his shoes and shutting out the noise of the wind and sea. He opened a cupboard and pulled out blankets. A scuffle in the back of the room caught her attention and she smiled as Captain lumbered to his feet before the hearth and stretched his legs. The old dog ambled over to greet her as Jack took his place before the hearth, spreading the blankets and placing two logs onto the embers glowing in the fireplace. After a few pats from Muri, Captain flopped down on the rug inside the door.
Jack returned to lift her and carry her to the fireside. He sank onto the blankets and pulled her onto his lap.
Flames crackled as the fire caught the new logs, and Muri shivered as a wave of heat wafted over her back and left cold in its place. The heat returned. Jack’s skin was faintly steaming against her. She brushed his hair off his forehead, running her fingers through to dry it as he watched her. Before he could lean in, she tugged on the collar of his soaked shirt. She slipped her fingers down to undo the top buttons, and he let go of her body and pulled it over his head.
Muri caught his cold hands and held them to her breast as the last of the outdoor chill vanished from his fingertips. She wanted to stop time, sitting against him and staring into his eyes, deep with the flickering of firelight. But not forever. Just long enough to realize that this—Jack, the cottage—truly could be her home.
Her hands were tiny over his as she moved them up to her neck, scuffing his calluses over her soft skin. The fire was hot on her back now, and Jack’s chest was warm and dry when she pressed herself against him, leaning up to kiss his neck. His fingers slid into her hair, tangling in the damp strands. Her lips tugged on his skin and a moan trembled through him as her teeth found him and gently bit.
His rough fingers skated down her back and held firm as she nipped at him, and the sound of his uneven breaths stirred a fire inside her. She shifted her hips, rubbing against the erection pressing into her, and he whispered a curse. She bit him again, and the heat inside her spread up her chest and down her tail. The last of the rain’s damp sizzled and evaporated, and her tail vanished into legs.
Muri was on Jack in an instant, pushing him back and moving her leg over to staddle him. She kissed over his stubbled chin to his lips, all the while fumbling with the buttons on his trousers.
He pulled away to help, pushing the damp material down and off his legs. She wished she could dry his damp thighs and bottom with her hot skin, but she was too impatient, and the sight of his erection erased all thought from her mind. She climbed back onto him and sank down on it as he cursed again.
Her own body wanted to be touched, but for now, having him filling her and seeing the waves of ecstasy crossing his face was enough. She found his hands on her sides and brought them to her hips, and as she pulled herself off him and back on, he gripped her and began to help.
“Is this—?”
“Shh,” she said. “Just keep going.” She let him take control, balancing herself with her hands on his shoulders as he thrust into her, pulling her body against his and pushing it away. All reason fled his face as he thrust faster, until he cried out and shuddered and went still.
His body sagged under her touch, and he leaned his face on her shoulder. All of him was hot now.
Muri wiggled her hips, nestling onto him before he lost his erection. He hugged her back.
“What was that called?” she whispered.
He shook his head against her shoulder.
“The two-headed octopus,” she decided, and he convulsed with a laugh.
Jack lifted his head and watched her face. He was waiting on her to decide what came next.
She rubbed his arm and found his hand, pulling it around to her front and bringing it between them, where their bodies were coupled together. He traced the backs of his fingers over her belly and down into the curls of hair until they danced over her exposed skin. His touch was gentle and light as he watched for her response.
Muri rose on her knees, giving him better access. With her body less open and exposed, he pressed harder, rubbing his knuckles into her. He leaned back, taking her with him. He left her propped on her arms on the blankets as he slid under her.
His knuckles ground harder between her thighs as he took one nipple in his mouth, sucking from beneath her. She rocked her hips into his hand. His other hand had grasped her hip again and held her steady. He bit her breast gently before releasing it and continuing down her body. He gripped both her hips and replaced his knuckles with his tongue.
She sprawled over him as he swirled delicious patterns on her, his hot breath teasing and his tongue roving, back and forth. He pulled back and his wet lips found her. His tongue forged a path for them to close and suck on her. Her knees started to shake, and he smoothed her legs down until her body rested on him somehow, his warm exhales assuring her he could breathe.
He sucked her in front, and his hands cupped her bottom. He pulled an arm in, wedging it under her thigh before settling her again. Then a callused thumb scratched between her legs. He rubbed across her straight to her center. He slipped his thumb into her wetness with no effort, but pulled it out to knead her from the outside.
“More,” she gasped, struggling to press down on his thumb.
He pushed it inside her again, circling, and her body strained against it. He withdrew it, and for a desperate moment Muri wanted to object. Then his fingers were in her, the rod of them stirring and pressing until he found a place that made her body jerk in response. His tongue worked her between his lips as he massaged her with his fingers on the inside. The tumult of pleasure at last overwhelmed her. She thrashed in his hold and cried out over and over before trembling after the release.
He helped her crawl backward over his body to collapse in his arms. His hair had dried, and the firelight reflected in his gaze. As she settled against him, his body relaxed onto the blankets. Raindrops thrummed on the roof and spattered the windows, but here inside they were dry and safe.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” he whispered, his voice huskier than usual.
“Me too.”
“I never thought I’d find someone like you.”
She hugged his chest, burrowing her hands to get her arms around him properly. “I didn’t either. I didn’t know what it was like to fall in love.” She pulled back to see his face. “I love you, Jack. And I won’t leave you again. I’ll be your family.”
“And I’ll be yours,” he choked out before pulling her back into his arms and whispering that he loved her, too.
Three Moons Later
Muri stood and stretched her back. The long rows of marigold plants crisscrossed from one bed to the next across the castle gardens. And above them fluttered hundreds of butterflies, just as Gray had promised. He hadn’t mentioned that butterflies came in all sizes and colors, or that their wings were iridescent and went motionless when they landed on a flower, preening slowly opened and closed until the butterfly floated up into the air and on to its next location.
Since their arrival, the butterflies had gathered at the flower shop each morning as the sunlight filled the village square. Sometimes, if Muri passed by early enough, a cloud of them would take off and join her to cross the clifftop to the gardens. The morning wind on the bay would buffet them, but they’d fight back and swoop over the tall garden wall and down onto the flowers to begin their day as she began hers.
Muri bent to retrieve her trowel and carried it to the toolshed. She couldn’t see any symmetry to the marigold seedlings she’d just planted, not like the orderly grid of chrysanthemums she’d done a few days ago. But Hyacinth had insisted Muri plant each marigold in the exact location where Hyacinth had left it lying on the dirt. She’d also said something about warding against beetles and maximizing soil fertility so Muri hadn’t dared vary the pattern, lest a plague of beetles descend on Woodglen as a result. She’d been on the garden crew for only one moon, but she knew better than to stray from Hyacinth’s directions.
For a while after her return from Glorypool, Muri had spent her days out on the water with Jack. She’d wanted to spend every moment with him. Plus, she couldn’t stop worrying that Bull would return to the bay and drag Jack under the water.
But as one moon and another had passed, she’d become restless. She wanted to contribute to her new community, and she was pretty sure Jack didn’t catch more fish when he had her onboard. If anything, he caught less fish because they spent half the day with the sail down, lying in its shade atop the nets and making love. One time, they’d even capsized the boat and lost all the fish he had caught.
And she could no longer use her fear of Bull as an excuse. She talked to Caly every quarter-moon using the enchanted pair of shells, and she knew Bull was behaving. Well, more or less. He and his small group of mermen had interrupted the next community meeting to challenge Hipp to a fight for dominance, resulting in shocked silence in the arena. But Hipp had refused to fight and Caly had swum into the middle of the mermen and loudly reminded everyone that they didn’t fight anymore, and the crowd had sighed in relief and gone back to discussing their committee tasks, leaving Bull alone in the center of the space.
The merpeople had planted trial seaweed fields around Glorypool, testing several varieties in different locations around the base of the island. They had agreed that if the first harvest succeeded, they’d plant more and the ban on having merchildren would lift. In the moons since her departure, they’d created new committees for several projects, and their enthusiasm seemed to grow with each accomplishment.
What’s more, after the failed attempt to seize power, Hipp had asked Bull to lead a group on the island locating and repairing the old huts used for pregnancies. He told Bull they needed someone brave to do it, given the threat of monkeys. Being in charge of a project that scared all the others seemed to agree with Bull, and he stopped grumbling about Hipp’s mind being poisoned by fairies and went about his work without fuss. One evening, he reported finding Strombidae and Lotti living in a cave on the far side of the volcano.
With the threat of Bull diminished, Muri left Jack on the water and joined the gardening crew at the castle. Most of the castle workers were older volunteers. With Muri helping, they could get a lot more done. She was used to the physical labor, plus she could do any heavy lifting. She liked bringing the gardens to life, but the more she learned about life in the village, the more she wanted to try everything—planting land vegetables and sewing new clothes and even making cheese. And she was learning to read with lessons at the village printshop. She would try it all, one thing at a time.
On slow days at the gardens, she woke before dawn and went fishing with Jack. Or, if he sneaked out and left her sleeping, she followed him later in the day, swimming across the bay in a few moments to reach the fleet. From beneath the waves, Muri could easily recognize the underside of Alina’s Blessing, with its new boards and shiny coat of varnish.
She might pack her satchel with a picnic of waterproof foods to share with Jack at lunchtime—cheese and plums and those sticks made from cut-up carrot roots that the human children loved, and a tin of the spread made from ground-up nuts to dip them in. Sometimes, she swam into Jack’s net and let him pull her to the surface just to see the look of surprise on his face when he found a naked mermaid instead of fish.
Caly kept a list of the problems the merpeople encountered and ideas they had, and Muri went over the problems with Hyacinth. Hyacinth was excellent at problem solving. Together they amassed a pile of tools they could bring to the merpeople and simple spells that could help them. Initially, Muri intended to bring the items to Glorypool, but dread seized her each time she imagined returning.
So instead, Caly offered to come to Woodglen to get the items. She called it a “research trip.” And once she’d decided to come, Euli and Perse and Apl and several others wanted to come as well. Finally, Caly cut off new participants so that she wouldn’t arrive in Woodglen with a crowd of merpeople, terrifying the villagers with an apparent invasion. Muri arranged to meet the mermaids on the stretch of sand where she’d first arrived so she could get them all clothed before the humans saw them.
Seeing her sisters again was wonderful. Once they were fully clothed and able to walk, Muri took them by her and Jack’s cottage. Jack had stayed off the water that day to help Muri host the mermaids on a tour of the village.
First they explored the shops at the wharf. No one had any coins, but they tried on hats at the milliner’s and the candymaker gave them samples. Muri took them for lunch at the grange home. Margery and the ladies had prepared a feast called a buffet, where giant platters of food filled the table and each person could take whatever they wanted. They had a dozen kinds of cheese, and slices of bread that had been toasted until they were crisp, and fresh snap peas from the garden, and all the pickles and jams the grange home had stockpiled the previous autumn, which Margery said they needed to clear off the shelves anyway now that summer was come again.
Muri hadn’t been sure if the mermaids should visit Hyacinth. Caly knew the truth about Hyacinth—that she wasn’t a terrifying, monkey-wielding killer. And Muri hated for the others to think badly of Hyacinth, especially when Hyacinth had procured most of the tools and spells the mermaids were taking home. But with everything progressing smoothly in Glorypool, Muri felt hesitant to spread the truth too widely. It might be too soon. She didn’t want to change anything when it was all going as well as it was. In the end, Hyacinth arranged for her human friend Ladi to watch the shop that day, in case the mermaids wanted to see the flower shop.
Finally, as the sun set, Jack took them all for pints of ale at The White Pony. Of course, by now, most of the mermaids had tried phyta, but Caly said the merpeople had decided not to make so much of it in the future since it seemed to make the mermen sloppy and unproductive. But human ale was potent. And the mermaids wanted to celebrate. Drunk on ale, they staggered back to Jack’s cottage to sleep the rest of the night before swimming home. They planned to come back in a few moons’ time.
Today, Muri waved goodbye to the butterflies and exited the castle gardens. She crossed the clifftop, scanning the bay for any late fishing boats, but only the blue waves and the circling gulls were out. As she entered the square, she glanced at the Fairweather Florist. A few butterflies lingered on the window frames, flexing their wings in the afternoon sunshine, and the noisy bluebird sang from atop the shop’s sign. Gray called the creatures Hyacinth’s “fan club.”
Muri missed Gray. He’d gone off on some adventure shortly after her return to the village, and now Hyacinth said he might stay longer in a village up north. Hyacinth said he’d met someone—someone he was in love with! Muri was glad about that even if she missed him. At least he was on the coast. The village of Cliffside was several days journey by road, but Muri could swim there in an hour, and she would someday soon. She still owed Gray a swimming lesson.
She turned to the village park in the center of the square—no longer haunted by Strombidae Murkel, the deposed merking, and now filled with roses and lilies and other summertime flowers. And sitting on a bench, watching for her, was Jack. He grinned the moment she spotted him.
“Why are you smiling like that?” Muri asked as she neared.
He reached for her, pulling her between his knees. She bent down to kiss him.
“I have a present for you,” he said, still grinning. A small, square package rested on the bench beside him.
Muri turned to sit, but Jack stood. “Let’s go home first.”
And still he was grinning.
She took his hand, eyeing the package as he tucked it under his arm. It could be a block of cheese, but it was rather wide and flat. Together they walked out of the square and down one of the lanes. They came out on a path across the fields toward home.
Captain lay in the late sun on the stones beside the door. He opened an eye at their approach, thumped his tail once, and went back to sleep.
Inside, Jack handed Muri the package. She undid the twine carefully and tucked it onto a shelf for later use. She opened the folded paper. Inside was a book, like Hyacinth’s book of flowers but smaller and more compact. It had naked people on the cover.
