Page 119 of The Changeling

I carved a morsel for him. He ate it, and colour crept into his hollow cheeks. He raised himself up higher. ‘Could I have another bite?’

I sliced some more for him, and he ate eagerly. He sat up on his bed, his blue eyes bright. ‘Is there more?’

I gave him the last portion, and he devoured it and sighed in satisfaction.

‘Caiti?’

‘Aye?’

‘I’m still hungry.’

‘It’s all gone, I’m sorry.’

‘It’s not food I’m hungry for now.’

I looked at him wonderingly, and he held out a hand to me. I took it, and he drew me down and kissed me. His other hand slipped around my waist, then he seized me and turned me, and I was lying beneath him, where I had so longed to be.

‘You’re feeling stronger then?’

‘Aye, I am. I could slay giants for you.’

I sighed and held him away from me. ‘Robbie, I need to tell you …’

‘What is it, sweetling?’

‘I never made those poppets … but I did tell Margrit how to. And I made other spells. I … I wished you’d dance with me.’

‘I wished for that too.’

‘No, I mean … I wrote your name in blood on birch bark!’

‘Well, I broke the wishbone with Rory for a month of Sundays before I finally won, and then I wished that you would let me kiss you.’ He bent his head and possessed my lips with his. One hand slipped under the hem of my dress, stroking circles of fire on the sensitive skin behind my knee. Slowly, he stroked upwards.

‘Robbie …’

‘Hmmm?’

‘I tied a piece of nettle string to the hawthorn tree, summoning you to me … and I knew the nettle string had power …’

‘You summoned me?’

I nodded, afraid he would draw away from me, sit and turn his back to me, never speak to me again.

He smiled at me. ‘Caiti, I’d been looking desperately for you for weeks. I wanted you to summon me! I wish you had done it earlier.’

‘But …’

‘If I remember rightly, it was me who kissed you that time, and would have done a whole lot more if you had not stopped me.’

I was determined to confess all. ‘And I … I made mayblossom cakes. I knew hawthorn flowers were used in love spells, and yet I made them, anyway.’

‘Mmmmm,’ Robbie said, closing his eyes in pretended rapture. ‘Those mayblossom cakes …’

‘Dinna laugh at me, Robbie.’

‘I cannot help it. Caiti, I was in love with you long before you even spared me a glance. I think I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you, spinning in the meadow, and falling down, but springing straight back up and spinning again.’

‘We were five!’