Fortunately for Gui’s composure the girl did not do as he had done and shed every layer. She hitched up the skirt of her shift and waded purposefully into the water to her knees. Just as Gui had done she shivered in the cold. Beneath the water Gui grinned to himself in sympathy as another shudder racked his body.
The girl paused her song and giggled to herself. Unexpectedly she ducked under the surface to her neck and came up again in one fluid movement, now soaked to the skin. She gasped aloud in a series of breathy panting noises that reached inside Gui to a time when he had been capable of causing women to make such sounds. His guts twisted with longing as he looked at her, transfixed.
The curves that were now apparent beneath the thin cloth indicated she was even closer to womanhood than he had at first supposed. True, her breasts were small, but her waist was shapely and the wet tunic clung to her legs. Through the fabric Gui could make out the dark triangle of hair where her legs met, and the pink of her nipples. Despite the cold water Gui felt himself hardening. He almost choked on the cold water in surprise at the unexpected awakening of an urge that had lain dormant for so long.
The girl had not spotted Gui or the horse. She waded to the edge, but instead of climbing out she fumbled with her belongings. When she turned around Gui realised she was holding something in her hand. She unwound it and Gui caught a glint of metal before she dropped it into the water and began staring intently down with a look of concentration on her face.
She was fishing.
Gui was transported back across years and the sea to his home in Brittany where he had done similar as a boy in the river that ran through Gilbert’s father’s land and an ache stabbed his heart.
He tore his mind from the memories that were simultaneously comforting and painful to recall. This might be his only chance to slip away. Keeping low in the water, he eased his way slowly towards the bank, taking care not to splash. He was roughly halfway there when his horse spotted him and whinnied in greeting.
The girl straightened up and turned around. She raised her head and in doing so her eyes slid over Gui who was half-crouched in the water. They fell instead on the horse. She became rigid, eyes moving around from side to side as she searched along the bank for the owner. Still she failed to see Gui who was almost beneath her nose, holding himself equally still and barely daring to breathe. Instead of turning and fleeing to the opposite bank, as any sensible person would have done, she started wading towards the horse. And towards Gui.
‘Kac’h!’
Gui swore under his breath. He was faced with two choices. To duck beneath the water and try to swim out of her way, or to surface and reveal his presence. If it had just been his own possessions at stake he might have risked leaving them, but Gilbert’s seal ring was in the saddlebag where Gui had put it for safety during the journey. He could not risk it being discovered and taken.
In the brief moment he had before the girl waded straight into him he made his decision and rose from the depths to face her.
Water cascaded off Gui’s body as he pushed himself to the surface. His hair clung to his face in tangles, half-obscuring his view. The girl began screaming at a volume and pitch that her previous soft humming had not suggested she was capable of. Still she did not make any attempt to run but stood, eyes wide and fixed on Gui. They flashed to his face, then downwards over his body where they settled at the level of the water. Her mouth widened and she screamed once more.
‘Serr da veg! Loukez plac’h!’ Gui bellowed. Stop that, you foolish girl!
He realised too late that he had spoken in his own tongue, the Breton dialect that even Frenchmen struggled to master at times. To her ears it must have sounded like meaningless babbling.
In any case, it didn’t stop her cries. He would have to stop her forcibly if necessary. He plunged towards her, holding his right hand up towards her in an attempt to silence her screams before half of the shire came running to discover the cause of her panic.
The girl made a lunge at him as he neared her, fishing hook outstretched. He had expected her to retreat to the far bank, not attack. Surprised at her ferocity, Gui flung himself to one side. The hook gouged the length of his left forearm, drawing blood and leaving a deep scratch. He roared in pain and whipped his arm away viciously.
His toe bashed a half-buried rock and he lurched under the water. Instinctively, he reached out to steady himself and grasped hold of the nearest object. It turned out to be the girl’s outstretched arm. His fingers closed around her wrist as he went back and then she too was slipping below the surface.
With his eyes closed Gui could only feel rather than see what took place. The girl’s legs tangled with his, shift floating loose. He felt bare flesh against his shins and she fell face forward on to him. Through her shift Gui could feel her small breasts, the hard nipples straining against his naked chest. Her sharp hipbone brushed against his groin, sending a tremor through his entire body and causing him to swell despite the icy water. He had not been this close to a woman for longer than he cared to remember. In any other situation this would be the most arousing sensation imaginable, but now he focused his energy on breaking through the surface once more.
He rolled so that he was on top of the girl and grasped her firmly round the waist with his right arm, holding her close to him as he straddled her. Feeling for the riverbed with his feet, he pushed upwards, taking the girl with him.
They came up, both gulping for air. The girl pushed herself violently from Gui, kicking his shin for good measure. Almost as soon as her lungs were full she began screaming once more. She looked from his face downwards whereupon her eyes opened wide and her mouth became a perfect, pink oval of alarm.
With mounting horror Gui realised that although he was standing waist deep in the river, the water was not particularly murky. The half of him that was below the surface must be clearly visible to the girl. He instinctively brought his arms round to cover himself in a belated gesture of modesty. He realised too late that his disfigured left arm was now on full display instead and put both arms back behind his back.
The girl screamed again. She was similarly attempting to cover her body with a two-handed version of the dance of modesty Gui was performing. Gui dropped to a crouch so that the water came to mid-chest and his lower half was less conspicuous. He kept his left arm behind his back, suspecting that the sight of his deformity would cause her further panic.
The girl settled for covering her breasts with one arm and the dark triangle between her legs with the splayed fingers of her other hand. Gui did his best not to stare at what she was trying to hide, but she drew more attention to her attributes than she concealed.
Now she was seemingly satisfied with their attempts at modesty, the girl’s screams became words.
‘Leave me alone, dweorgar!’ she cried.
‘Stop screaming,’ Gui ordered. His brain caught up with his ears. ‘What did you call me?’
‘You can speak!’ the girl gasped. Her eyes grew wide with surprise.
Gui frowned, his earlier suspicion that she was mentally deficient creeping back into his mind.
‘Of course I can.’ Her accent had been broad, with the flat vowels of York. He’d understood her words, but it had not come naturally. ‘If you mean in your tongue, then why not?’
The girl took a careful step backwards, folding her arms tightly across her breasts. To Gui’s relief she didn’t scream again, but widened her eyes and jutted out her jaw assertively.
