OF DREAMS AND CEREMONIES (12 page)

"But you know," Nicholas continued, his smile turning a bit cheeky, "if you really can't get by without a butterfly sighting, David Taylor - tart for them that you are - we could try at The Eden Project."

"Ah. The place with those big bio domes or whatever they are?"

"That's the one. Just in case I'm not enough for you, and you want a butterfly drinking your nectar, too."

Dave chuckled, and unleashed his best grin. "You know you love that they love me. You don't mind sharing."

Nicholas growled in reply, and his hand tightened possessively around Dave's. "In very rare circumstances … and only with butterflies. Don't you go getting any ideas."

He didn't tease any more, but leaned in against the table edge to murmur, "I'm all yours, Nicholas. I promised you that."

They gazed at each other intensely for a lovely charged moment - but then had to sit back when their coffee and tea were brought to the table. "Sorry to interrupt, guys," the guy said. "Thought you'd like it hot, you know."

Dave guffawed and Nicholas just about hooted with laughter at the hint of innuendo. "Thank you," Nicholas managed. "You're right, we
do
like it hot."

Once the guy headed off again, however, Dave saw that not everyone at the café approved of his and Nicholas's involvement with each other. 'At last!' part of him cried. Someone to challenge them. Someone to face down. Dave needed the practice, he figured, before he went home to Oz and became the subject of teasing and taunts.

There was an older couple sitting at a table nearby; the man was scowling and the woman looked disgusted. They didn't say anything, but they stared in disapproval at Nicholas and Dave as if they expected this would force the two men to quit holding hands so very obviously.

Nicholas hadn't noticed yet, being too busy checking on how his tea was brewing in the teapot. Dave, however, took the opportunity to direct a big uncomplicated beaming smile at the couple. And he leaned towards them a little to confide, "We're on our honeymoon!"

The woman had been about to drink more of her tea, but now she put down the cup as if having lost her taste for it. Nicholas, having finally taken in the situation, lifted Dave's hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it as reward and further provocation. The woman stood up and stalked out, leaving the man to belatedly stand and then grumble a complaint at the café guy on his way out - which was politely shrugged off.

When he came over to clear the couple's table, Dave said, "Sorry. Didn't mean to chase away your customers."

The guy shrugged again. "Who needs them? You two enjoy yourselves. You deserve it."

"If they didn't pay, I'll cover the bill."

"They'd already paid, don't worry about it." And he nodded politely before taking the abandoned tea things away, and leaving them alone.

"My knight in shining armour!" Nicholas murmured, caught between admiration and laughter. "Will you tilt at
all
my dragons… ?"

"Yes," he fervently vowed. "
Yes
. For all my life."

Late that night Dave woke to again find Nicholas standing at the bedroom window staring up at the standing stones. Even taking into account the eerie effect of the moon's cool light, Nicholas appeared pale and spooked. "Hey," said Dave, waking up quite quickly this time. "What are you up to? Come back to bed."

Nicholas glanced at him before returning his gaze to the stone circle. "There were lights up there. I swear I saw lights up there."

Dave frowned, and slowly got out of the bed to go stand beside Nicholas. "What kind of lights?"

"I don't know. Just a couple of dim lights, or maybe a few. Bobbing about."

It took a moment for Dave to focus properly on the stones, and then he stared hard for a while, but there was nothing up there now. "What, like torches, maybe? Or do you say flashlights?"

"We say torches. Could be, but they weren't very bright."

"Fireflies … ?" Dave tried.

Nicholas cast him a look. "
Very
unlikely."

"Well, you're the scientist," Dave responded, a little sharper than he'd have liked, but what could anyone expect from a man woken in the middle of the night? "What do
you
think they were?"

"Will-o'-the-wisps," Nicholas said, just as sharp but with a touch of whimsy.

"Which are … ?"

"Pixies carrying little lights trying to lead you astray."

Dave let that be for a moment. Then he said, "You know, if you just left the curtains closed, they'd protect us. Like the blankets do. We're perfectly safe here in our bedroom. It's like a fort."

"You think this is all in my imagination, don't you?"

"Whether it is or not, as long as you don't go out there and try following the lights over the cliff or whatever, we'll be fine."

"There really were lights, you know. Though I'm assuming people, not pixies."

"Promise me you won't go investigate in the middle of the night."

Nicholas just looked at him rather flatly for a long moment. But eventually he said, "I promise."

"Good. Now, come back to bed, and let me hold you, and maybe we can get some sleep. You'll be perfectly safe."

"I know," said Nicholas, obediently following Dave to the bed and climbing in after him, wriggling deep into his arms. "I'm always perfectly safe with you."

The next morning after they'd eaten and cleared up breakfast, Dave found Nicholas at the table again poring over their map of Cornwall, measuring things off with a ruler. "What, are you working out distances or something?" Dave asked. "Are we going for a drive today?" He had to admit that taking the Jaguar out for a spin hadn't gotten old yet.

Nicholas looked at him a bit shamefaced for a moment, but then metaphorically girded his loins and announced, "You can draw a line on the map that runs from Lizard Point, through St Michael's Mount, to Gurnard's Head - which looks like a pretty significant promontory on the north coast of Cornwall. And as far as I can make out, the stone circle is right plumb on the line."

Dave let out a sigh. "So, what does that mean?"

"Do you know about ley lines … ?"

"They've been debunked as random coincidence, haven't they?"

Nicholas seemed almost too astonished to be outraged. "I never realised what a sceptic you are! How did you find our waterhole in the Outback? And why on earth does Charlie think you have a Dreamtime connection with the place?"

Dave shrugged. "Dunno. I just think you've got to be careful with this kind of thing. Cos the human imagination is pretty damned powerful, and you can project anything you like on things that don't actually mean anything at all."

"Right," said Nicholas, obviously unimpressed.

"Anyway, if it
is
real - the Dreamtime thing, I mean - then that doesn't necessarily mean I'm gonna feel a connection with other places, too, does it? In fact, maybe it means that I
won't
."

Which Dave thought was an entirely reasonable point, but Nicholas directed a mighty scowl at him, and Dave decided he might as well go get some fresh air before they ended up really arguing. Which he assumed was an activity to be avoided if possible while on honeymoon. "Just heading out for a wander," he announced - and once Nicholas had acknowledged him, he did so.

He didn't go far, but just rambled around in front of the cottage with his hands shoved in his jeans pockets. He didn't go near the cliff edge, as Nicholas was wont to do, but he watched the endlessly changeable sea which was steely-blue today under an overcast sky. Eventually he looked inland, and with a start realised there was a figure sitting on the altar stone in the middle of the stone circle.

For a moment his heart raced as he remembered Joan saying, 'I wouldn't go disturbing them, my lad.' But then the figure waved, and once Dave squinted to focus properly in the diffuse light of the day, he saw that it was actually harmless old Bert.

Dave waved back in a friendly manner, thinking that would be that. But then Bert waved again, somewhat more urgently than might be expected in a greeting between acquaintances, and Dave twigged that Bert wanted him - or them - to go up and talk to him. Dave shrugged, and tried to indicate with another wave, 'Wait there, and I'll be up in a minute.' Well, it looked like Bert wasn't going anywhere for now, so Dave headed back inside.

Nicholas had put the map aside for now, and was on his laptop. "I'm just starting up my blog for the day," he said. "Do you want to go visit the Eden Project? We could take our photo there, with some butterflies maybe. Could be cool."

"Are you writing about us disagreeing?" Though that wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing. "I suppose that makes it seem all the more real, doesn't it? I mean, no relationship is all plane sailing."

Nicholas sniffed. "It
is
real. But no, I wasn't. Though I may write about us
discussing
the matter. It's not as if either of us is entirely convinced one way or the other, is it?"

Dave grinned at the man, hugely and stupidly relieved. He went over to drop a kiss to the top of Nicholas's dark-haired head, and then said, "You remember old Bert from the other day at the pub? He's up there at the stone circle. I think he wants to say hello."

"Okay. Is he coming down?"

"No, I think he wants us to go up. Is that all right?"

"Yes, of course," said Nicholas. He offered Dave a wry smile. "I promise I won't get spooked."

"Good man," said Dave. And they headed out to meet Bert.

The old fellow beamed at them genially as they reached the stone circle and walked up to the altar stone. He didn't get up from the stone - which was flat and low enough for his booted feet to be firmly on the ground - but he seemed happy enough that they'd come.

"Hello," said Dave. "It's Bert, isn't it? I'm Dave and this is Nicholas."

"Hello," Bert replied. His smile when it turned to Nicholas - as so many people's smiles did - grew sweeter still.

"How are you today?" Dave continued. "Are you taking in the view? It really is a great view from up here." He took the opportunity to finally look at said view himself, which was much the same as the one from their front door, though with added magnificence due to the higher ground. Their cottage looked snug and peaceful from here, tucked away in a rounded dell at the foot of a steep rise.

"Oh aye, I'm well enough," Bert said a bit bashfully, glancing at Nicholas again.

"What do you do around here?" Nicholas asked. "Are you a fisherman?" Which was what Dave would have guessed, too, given Bert's reddened weather-beaten skin.

"Used to be. But my boat - Well, I crew sometimes, for the
Alice May
out of Mullion, during the main season. But my boat, the F
ortune Teller
, is at Cadgwith - and I take tourists out for trips. Cash only, mind. Scenic trips." Bert looked hopefully at Nicholas. "Aye, maybe you'd like to come out, if the weather holds."

Nicholas looked at Dave with a querying brow, but it seemed clear he was interested. "Sure," Dave answered for them both. "If it's safe, you know?"

"Sure," Bert echoed, and his eyes slid away mischievously. "If you can spare the time away from … what you said you were doing here."

Nicholas snorted a laugh. "Sorry about that. I was being horribly obnoxious."

"You're on your honeymoon!" Bert protested. "What else should you be doing?"

"Okay," Dave said, trying to steer the conversation back to smoother waters, "we can probably fit a boat trip into our busy schedule. But only if it's safe. I don't want to be losing Nicholas already when I only just found him, I'm sure you can understand that."

"I know these waters like a landlubber knows his garden. And no one's ever been hurt on board the
Fortune Teller
- aye, nor lost off her, neither."

"Sounds like it could be fun," said Nicholas. "It would give us another perspective on the coastal scenery, at least."

"But I hear there's a lot of shipwrecks off Lizard Point," Dave persisted. "I don't want to add to them, and it's not like we're talking about taking a rowing boat out on a pond, is it?"

Something fired within Bert, though he also seemed confused, even a little uneasy. "Sure, and there's Spanish galleons down there with treasure, and old British frigates! I take people out diving for treasure." He frowned, and then squinted up at Nicholas. "Maybe you'd like to go diving, if the weather holds?"

"No. No, I can't." Nicholas was now looking even edgier than Bert. He appealed to Dave: "I can't. The pressure, you know?" He lifted a hand to his head, though Dave had already understood. Nicholas didn't want to subject his aneurysm to the compression and decompression involved in diving even in shallow waters.

"That's all right," Dave reassured him, though there was a part of him that was sorry to lose the opportunity. "We won't be diving. Is that something you used to do, Nicholas? I haven't even gone snorkelling before, though I wouldn't have minded learning."

"No, I never have - and now I can't."

"It's all right, I understand. We definitely won't be diving," Dave repeated to Bert. "But we'll think about the boat trip, all right? Especially if we have another nice sunny day."

"All right," Bert said, watching Nicholas with both curiosity and anxiety. They were all silent for a long moment, until at last Bert stood up. "It's gonna get blowy soon, but if we have a nice day, Mrs Widgery will know where to find me."

"Thanks, Bert, that's great. Either way, we'll see you soon."

Nicholas remained silent, despite Bert looking at him again, wanting something, even if it was simply acknowledgement.

Then, unexpectedly, Bert said, "You don't come up here at night, do you?"

Dave frowned. "No … No, we don't." He looked at Nicholas, who was likewise frowning, and no doubt remembering staring out their bedroom window at the stones at all hours of the night. "Why?" Dave asked. "Why shouldn't we?"

Bert shrugged, and started sidling off. "There's the cliff and the ground so uneven as can be treacherous and the - the - stones. And well, you don't want to be losing him already, do you?"

"All right," Dave equably agreed. As soon as Bert was out of earshot on his way back to town, Dave grumbled to Nicholas, "What the hell was all that about?"