Page 88 of A Soul’s Awakening

Helena raised an eyebrow. “Hungry?” she asked.

“Is it that obvious?” Lance chuckled.

“Well, I can’t have you wasting away the moment you come home. Let’s get you some breakfast.”

Helena pushed on her spectacles, waiting as Lance pulled on a pair of loose cotton shorts, and they made their way to the kitchen together. She leant forward and lit the wood-burning stove. She felt Lance’s eyes boring into her back from where he sat, the chair creaking as he lowered his weight onto it. He had finally acquiesced to sit after she had declined his repeated offers to help.

She brewed her herbs on the stove top. They were purchased from an apothecary in the village, a special blend designed to prevent her from getting pregnant. Helena felt, as always, a small pang of regret in her stomach as she prepared them. Not only because of the bitter taste, but also because she wanted a child with Lance. One day, anyway. It was something they had discussed at length at different points in their relationship over the years.

The main reason to delay was that Eleanor was so close to finishing school. Helena knew she could not travel that distance back and forth to Portson with a newborn in tow multiple times a year. There was also no way she would leave her own tiny baby for an entire day, nor let Eleanor travel by herself. No, they would have to wait until her daughter had graduated and was set up in her own employment.

Helena poured the contraceptive brew from the saucepan into the terracotta mug on the wooden counter. She turned to Lance, who was watching her intently, eyes shining with an emotion that she felt herself. Helena knew that he desperately wanted a child with her, but it simply was not the right time. She sipped from the mug, her face grimacing at the disgusting taste and the bitter sweetness of the situation.

Lance gave her sad smile as she downed the contraceptive tea. She plucked her lips upwards weakly in response. Helena turned back to the kitchen bench, placing her mug down gently. She pottered around the kitchen, pulling out food, plates, and mugs. Helena placed a small platter for them to share on the table, pushing her account book aside to make room. It was laden with cheese, bread, olives, and fig paste. She placed a dish of butter next to it.

Helena then plopped two mugs of steaming black coffee onto the table, made with freshly boiled water, before seating herself next to Lance. The Merman hungrily began tucking into the platter. Helena smiled as she sipped, watching him sample the cheese first. She knew it was his favourite.

“Tides-damn! I just realised, is El is already at school?” he asked after his third helping of bread and butter.

“You only just noticed?” Helena replied, chuckling into her mug.

“Well, yes, I was a little distracted,” he admitted as he eyed his vest wrapped around Helena’s torso. It dipped low, revealing her impressive cleavage. “I am sorry I missed her though.”

“Don’t be too sorry.” A devious grin spread across her face. “We will be going to Portson soon for the Spring Equinox Festival. We can visit her when we go.”

“Judging by the look on your face, I am guessing that the trip is not just for pleasure, is it?” Lance chuckled, then took a sip of his coffee.

“I am going to put you to work,” Helena admitted with a shrug. “We need to harvest some pearls to sell at the festival market. It is wedding season come early summer. We can make a lot of money selling them there.”

“I am at your service, as always,” Lance said, winking before draining his mug.

The Merman’s chair scraped across the terracotta tiles of the kitchen floor as he stood, clearing the table from breakfast, stacking plates onto his large hand. His sensitive hearing caught the distinct footfalls of small, booted feet and the squeak of the garden gate. Lance felt a surge of joy, his face breaking into a grin. He had missed Rose’s boys.

“I will be back in a moment,” he promised, pressing a hasty kiss to Helena’s head. “Rose and the boys are back.” The Merman pointed to the dishes he had stacked next to the sink. “Don’t do those without me.”

Helena huffed and ignored him, dropping the crockery in the sink she had filled with well water “Go,” she shooed playfully, “they have missed you too.”

Lance nodded his head, excitement bubbling over as he made his way out of the door leading into the villa’s gardens. His eyes caught the image of two blonde-haired boys barrelling ahead of their red-headed mother. Rose gave him a cheerful wave, Biscuit trotting by her side. The Merman returned the gesture with enthusiasm.

“Uncle Lance!” the boys shouted together, picking up their sprint. Max collided with one of the Merman’s legs and then Zac with the other. “We missed you,” one of them mumbled, though he could not tell which.

“I missed you too, boys,” he replied, voice thick. He stooped awkwardly as they stuck to him and crushed them back in an all-encompassing hug, relief and joy washing over him.

Helena, her spectacles slipping down her nose, fiddled with the large iron padlock that was chained to the door of her rudimentary work shed at the base of the cliff. It was nestled far enough up the beach that high tide never touched it. Lance waited patiently behind her, arms full of towels, fins, goggles, and changes of clothes.

“Got it,” she grunted as the large key clicked to the left. “I will have to oil this later.”

The door of the wooden shed creaked and groaned as she pushed it open, the hinges complaining from lack of use after a long winter. A vague smell of salt and seaweed wafted into Helena’s nostrils as she stepped into the dim interior. She checked the equipment that she used for pearling inside. The magnifying glasses, tweezers, and glass beads were all in good condition, aside from being slightly dusty. While she did that, Lance unpacked the oil lamps from their wooden boxes and tested that they all still functioned.

Happy enough that everything was in working order, Helena slipped her round, gold-framed spectacles from her face. She folded them and placed them carefully on her workbench, next to the base of the pair of fixed magnifying glasses. Lance left the towels and spare clothes in the shed but insisted on carrying everything else down the shoreline.

“Let me help,” he argued. “You do not have to do everything by yourself, especially when I am here.”

Helena conceded. He was right, and she should accept his help when he was home. It was just hard for her to remember sometimes. She had been so conditioned by Eleanor’s father to never ask for help, to never ask for anything, that even all these years later it was a hard habit for her to break.

It’s so different with Lance, I must remember that.

He handed off the goggles and fins to Helena when their toes brushed the shoreline. The Merman slipped off his shorts. He then picked up the net baskets again in his arms, biceps bulging, as he stepped into the water until it was at his hips. Lance’s form took several minutes to shift. Before long, Helena could see his shimmering tail peeking from the waves.