The Virgin Bride of Northcliffe Hall by Catherine Coulter

Author:Catherine Coulter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Medieval
Published: 2020-08-17T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Grayson said, “The Virgin Bride—Mathilde—came to me. She said you were using the children to help you, but she didn’t understand what you needed them to do for you. I came to the schoolroom. I was frightened when I couldn’t immediately wake up Pip. But when he opened his eyes, he told me about his strange dream. He was riding a huge black stallion. The stallion spoke to him, told him they were close to where he, the stallion, wanted to go. Pip wasn’t at all afraid. Why did you want to go to Camelot, Olafar?”

Olafar slowly sat up and swung his legs over the side of his narrow bed. He pulled a blanket around himself and rose. He poured a mug of water and drank deeply. He said to himself, not to Grayson, “But it wasn’t the right Camelot. Still, I did manage to get there and stay there for a little while.”

Olafar gave a small laugh. “Olafar was also my uncle’s name. My father said my uncle Olafar should not have died, but he blundered, and his life was forfeit. I was in his image, so my father said his name was now mine, and I was to take heed to make no blunders.”

“Olafar, are you the black stallion I saw at the ornamental pond?”

“Yes, I am he. I saw you, knew you were somehow different from other men, and I wondered what sort of man you were. You were never afraid of me. You wanted to understand me.”

Grayson nodded. “What are you?”

“I am a kelpie. Well, I am a half kelpie. My father’s family hails from Shetland. They belonged to an old noggle tribe who protected the few human families living there. But my father wanted to see the Loch Ness monster, and so he moved near Urquhart Castle on the western side of the loch. He told me he did meet the monster, and she scared him half to death. He shape- shifted into a giant sea snake and surprised her enough to escape being dinner for her children.

“When he shifted into human form, he liked to drink at a pub near Inverness. He met my mother there. One night when he became a stallion and was galloping on the moors, he saw her standing by a yew bush. She told him she was waiting for him. She rode him, laughing, shouting to the heavens. When it rained, he carried her to an abandoned shack and became a human man. They married. He didn’t know she was a witch until their wedding night, when she flew them into the heavens, singing at the top of her lungs. I was conceived that night, so my father told me.” Olafar paused a moment, then shook his head. “I am human, but I am also other, just as my father is other, just as his father was other before him. I am different because I also carry my mother’s witch blood.”

Grayson said slowly, “I know of only one kelpie.

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