Evening was falling as I saw Hannah and Duncane top the rise and started down towards the village hand in hand. Dauy and I knew where they had gone. An all day courting walk on the path they had taken would bring them close to the Stones. While some in the village told stories of the “haunted” Stones to scare children, Dauy and I knew better.

Looking at Hannah and Duncane now, as they came closer, there was just that something that made me know. They knew what Dauy and I knew. Up the mountain, there was still a hillside god.

As they came close to the house, I said “You look like you’ve had good news.”

They started, and looked at each other as if they had something to hide.

“Don’t bother trying to pretend. You are both bad liars. I can just look at you and know you’ve been to the Stones.”

“Mother,” Hannah started, “we..”.

“You’ve talked to Anthracyda.”

“You know about it?”

“Yes. There are a few families in the village who know, but we don’t spread it about. The Vicar would be calling for a Witch finder and we’d all be dead.”

“What is it? It said it was a hillside spirit.”

“How should I know? In the old stories, ‘gods’ wanted to be worshipped. It doesn’t seem to want that.”

Duncane spoke up for the first time. “The night I spent on the hillside with the sheep on Winter Solstice in the blizzard, it warmed the stones. It didn’t ask for payment, but said that if I returned in the Spring and played my pipes, that would be recompense.”

“And so the two of you walked all the way to the Stones to repay the gift?”

“Yes.” they both replied.

“I can tell something else happened.”

Hannah said: “It made us glow and everything sparkled.”

“So it blessed you and your future marriage?”

“It didn’t ‘bless’ us. It just said that we will be good for each other and talked about kindness and respect.”

I harrumphed. “That’s how you know it’s not our God. When was the last sermon you heard from the Vicar on kindness and respect?”

I continued. “Your father and I met it just before we married. Close enough our parents let us walk where we would. I think your father wanted to have a last walk on the hill before the sea took him forever.”

At this point, Dauy appeared in the doorway and looked at me in askance.

“They’ve been to the Stones. They’ve been approved.”

“Ah.”

Hannah said, “What do you mean ‘approved’?”

Dauy responded, “It doesn’t give you a blessing that goes with you and can protect you later. But Anthracyda can show you whether your hearts match.”

I added, “That was when everything sparkled. I don’t know what happens if your hearts don’t match.”

I looked fondly at Dauy. “It certainly sparkled for us” and he smiled back.

Hannah looked around and said, “What do I tell Oswyn and Clarice?”

“Your brother and sister will find out on their own, when the time is right. Don’t say anything that will get to the ears of the Vicar.”

Next - Broken Blessings (Fiona Brice and Alastair Cullane) (May 1642)

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