Page 74 of The Cornish Bride

Chapter Thirty-Four

Walking at the water’s edge, Sam and Ysella reached the first minor headland where it buttressed out towards the sea. Here, low cliffs surrounded by jagged rocks and rockpools separated the main beach from the series of small coves running along the coast. Abandoning Sam’s hand, Ysella ran to explore the rockpools, bending over them in delight as she studied their contents.

Indulgent as a parent, Sam watched her as she exclaimed over what they held, coming back to him with a small crab held delicately by its shell to wave under his nose.

“Is this a baby crab?”

He shrugged. “I suppose it might be. I think we’d better store that one up to ask Jago tomorrow.” He held out his hand and she set the tiny crab on his palm, its small feet tickling his skin. “I think we’d better put him back.”

She ran to replace the tiny crab in its rockpool home, and moved on to the next, scrambling over the barnacle-covered rocks in her bare feet.

Sam strolled on, gazing out to sea where a few fishing boats made tiny dots on the horizon. Might the next land they’d come to if they set sail from this beach be the distant Americas? He needed to look at a map of the world.

Ysella ran back to him as they entered the next small cove, to walk by his side in the sea’s edge, feet kicking up a shower of water. The next small headland was much closer. He peered at it, the brightness of the sun making him squint. Surely that dark patch there might be a cave.

Ysella had seen it as well and ran on ahead.

Sam threw a glance back over his shoulder at the advancing tide, which was definitely coming in rather than going out, and the small amount of dry sand still between the first headland and the sea. It might not be moving all that fast, and he had to get her back safely before they became trapped, unlikely as that seemed. Throwing caution to the wind, he ran after Ysella.

The dark mouth of the cave yawned before him, Ysella’s small figure just inside the entrance. Sand ran into the cave and dark rock loomed overhead. Sam blinked in the poor light, straining to see better. Water ran down the walls and, where it ran, bright colors had streaked the rock in a rainbow of vivid hues.

Ysella gasped. “This is magical.”

He stepped up behind her. “Like some kind of underwater magic grotto.”

She nodded. “I expect it probably is underwater when the tide comes in. Just look at those colors.” She glanced back over her shoulder at him. “Can we go in a bit further?”

The temptation to step closer and put his arms around her in this secretive, magical place rose, but he’d already frightened her away once this morning. He mustn’t rush things and do it again, no matter how much he longed to. “It’ll be even darker if we do that.”

She shook her head in scornful dismissal. “Pah. I don’t care. We can go in as far as there’s a bit of light, surely? I want to see if there are more of these beautiful colors. See how they’ve formed only where the water runs.”

“It’ll be the minerals in the water,” Sam said. “I went to Bath once, long ago, where they have the therapeutic baths for the sick. The water there is stained with minerals and the skin of the attendants who help people turns a bright orange all over from long exposure to the water.”

“I don’t want to believe it’s only minerals,” Ysella said, pulling a face at him as though she maybe didn’t believe his tale of the Bath attendants. “I want to believe it’s magic, so don’t spoil it for me with your science.”

“Best hold hands in the dark,” Sam said, holding his out.

She flashed a sideways look at him, but took his hand, hers warm in his.

The sandy floor was level, leading back at an angle to the wide cave entrance and turning to the left as they went in deeper. The walls in here glimmered with the radiance of the mineral deposits, catching what little light there was. The roof stayed high, and not even Sam needed to duck. It was indeed a magical discovery.

“What’s this?” Ysella had halted by what seemed to be the face of a young woman carved into the rock, her visage as streaked with color as the walls. She was beautiful.

Sam stepped up beside her and stared. Someone, who knew when, had come into the depths of this cave and for some unknown reason carved out the face of a woman in the rock. “Might she be the object of someone’s love?” he suggested, reaching out to rest a finger on the woman’s cold cheek. How much she resembled Ysella, with her delicate features set in a heart-shaped face. The craftsman had captured the tumble of curls to slender shoulders. She seemed to have grown out of the rock.

“If so, he must have loved her very much,” Ysella whispered, her voice echoing around the high cave walls and vanishing off in endless repetition down into the darkness within.

Sam swallowed, his hand tightening on Ysella’s.

She returned the pressure.

For a few moments they stood in silence, regarding the lonely image of the woman.

“Wait a minute,” Ysella cried. “Look. What’s this?” She ran her fingers over the rock beneath the carving, tracing something out.

Sam moved to give her more light and bent forward to examine what she’d found. Lettering, carved into the rock. Crude but nevertheless lettering.

Ysella’s head bumped into his as she also struggled to read what some long-ago hand had carved beside the stony image of the woman he loved.