Page 41 of Horsemen and Hot Chocolate

He nodded, not trusting his voice. He took another step, and Katrina released his hand.

Before he took the second step, his mother raced to meet him halfway, but stopped before him.

Her eyes darted over his face, scanning every inch of him. Some of her brunette hair glimmered silver in the light, and he took in the worried lines and wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. Fourteen years had aged her just as they had changed him. Something deep within him ached at the precious time he’d lost—how he hadn’t had the privilege of watching his mother grow older.

At last, her gaze settled on his eyes. He shifted, unsure if she could sense the darkness within, but a glossy sheen of tears appeared.

Her hands flew to her mouth. “It’s you.”

Before he could speak, she wrapped her arms around him tightly. He crumpled into his mother. Burrowing his face into her neck, his tears fell into her woolen sleeve.

“Oh, my boy,” she wailed. “My sweet, beautiful boy.”

“What’s going on out there, Charlotte?” a gruff voice asked.

His mother did not release him, but Willem peered over her shoulder. Father rounded the counter and halted.

“Hoff, it’s him,” his mother said, sniffling when she glanced behind her. “It’s Willem!”

“But—” his father started, his brows pinching.

Willem gently removed himself from his mother, but she held one arm around his waist. He regarded his father with a lump in his throat. Father’s dark hair had thinned, and his back held a slight hunch. He leaned against a cane, placing all his weight on his good leg.

Willem couldn’t decipher what his father was thinking. A bundle of nerves tightened in his stomach. Some of him still wished to run and avoid this uncertain reunion, but he forced himself to stand tall.

“Father, it’s me. I’m home,” he said.

The cane tapped against the wooden floors as his father approached. When they stood face-to-face, his father scrutinized him from head to foot. Willem forced himself not to avert his gaze.

The hard lump in his throat grew as the clock on the wall ticked down the seconds. Slowly, his father’s brows relaxed from their constant furrowed state, and a tear carved down his cheek.

“Willem?”

“It’s me, Pa.”

The cane clunked on the floor before his father stumbled forward to embrace him.

Willem’s eyes stretched wider. For the first time, he was taller than his father. The man he’d looked up to seemed frailer than he remembered.

His father pulled away, and tears glimmered from his dark eyes. “Where have you been?” he croaked.

The lump heated Willem’s throat until his own tears fell.

“I’ve been lost in the darkness for so long. I couldn’t remember my past or who I was. But…” Willem gestured to Katrina, who stood back to give them space. “I remember now. She helped me. She found me and brought me home.”

“Oh, Miss Katrina,” his mother started with a choked cry. “Thank you for bringing my son home. Wherever did you find him?”

Willem hadn’t discussed whether they would keep his curse a secret, but he trusted Katrina with whatever truth she wished to share.

“I found him wandering near my home in the forest on my nightly walk,” she said. “He saved me from a terrible fall.”

“Yes… and she saw me for who I truly was,” he murmured fondly.

Katrina grinned softly.

Chapter twenty-four

Aweek passed, and Katrina watched the first flakes of snow swirling in the sky. News of Willem’s return spread through the town mere hours after he came home. The information buzzed into gossip among the townsfolk, wondering how he’d lost his memories, where he’d been, and how she could have found him.