Emma Nolan has spent her whole life on her father's ranch, knowing nothing beyond the sheep, goats, donkeys, cows, and horses that called his hundred acres their home. Mary Margaret, her mother, had taken her to the closest town at least twice a year since she was six, but these trips were the only time she left the ranch for years, until her father began sending her to run errands, either on her own, or with one of the men who work for him. Being his only heir, David relies on her to take over the ranch when he was gone, though, of course, she has quite some time before she has to worry about any of that.
Emma was born to run this farm. She was a natural with the animals, knew exactly what she was doing - not that David ever doubted her.
But one day early in 1941, three months after her fifteenth birthday, Emma's whole life changed suddenly. She was returning from taking her favorite mare, Swan Song, out for her morning ride when she saw him in the stables for the first time. Her father had mentioned that he was hiring a new ranch hand, a young man named Killian Jones, whose father insisted he find himself an agriculture job after his older brother joined the army to fight the War.
Though her father never told her that the new ranch hand would be so… gorgeous.
If she was not riding Swan Song, she would have stopped in her tracks the moment she saw him. Even on her horse, she feels her breath catch in her throat, feels the pounding of her heart against her ribs. He is unlike anyone Emma had ever seen (though, granted, she had a very small realm of people she has actually seen), a god brought to land, that found his way to her father's farm. He does not seem to have seen her yet, and she takes the opportunity to take a really good look at him as she approaches. His dark hair is just long enough to be pulled back into a ponytail, with the chiseled features of a fine marble statue. He has a dark red button-down over a white t-shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a pair of dark blue jeans. And then, finally, he looks up at her as she dismounts Swan Song outside the stable, and she drowns in the oceans of his bright blue eyes.
"Well, hello there," he says to her with a voice like warm honey, flashing her a smile perfect enough for the movies. No one told her he was going to have an accent, beautiful enough to turn her insides to butter - though maybe they just did not know?
"Hello," she manages to reply. "You must be Killian, the new ranch hand?"
"Aye, that I am. And who might you be, love?"
"Emma Nolan, my father is the one that hired you. Pleased to meet you."
He pauses for just a moment, realizing just what this means, then bows slightly towards her. "The pleasure is all mine, Miss Nolan," he says with a wink.
"Please, call me Emma."
He stares at her for just a moment too long, both of them lost for words, but then his attention turns to the mare. "And who is this beauty?"
Emma smiles up at her horse, running her fingers through her mane. "Her name is Swan Song, and she is the pride of my life."
"What is she, almost two years old?"
She turns back to him, her eyes wide with surprise. "A month and a half away, actually. But how did you know?"
"There's a reason your father hired a seventeen year old, I suppose," he answers, taking the reins from her and leading the horse through the stables, though Emma remains at his side. "The only thing I've known to be stable my whole life is horses. Who can at least rely that they won't leave you for a better life, or join the navy when you need them the most." He snaps his head to her, having realized what he said just a moment too late. "Sorry, Miss Swan, that was - "
"No, Killian, there's no need to apologize." She leads Swan Song into her stall, then picks up his brush, starting to gently remove the tangles from her mane, part of their daily routine. "You're in a new environment, with people you've never met before. You're allowed to be stressed, to crack a little bit. You're allowed to be human."
She meets his eyes again, smiling up at him, though he seems to be drowning in his own emotions. Little did the two of them know that she was destined to be just the thing to pull him to shore.
Over the next few months, Emma and Killian grew closer, quickly becoming the best of friends, though the fact that they are the only two around their age on the ranch may have affected their friendship greatly.
But then, one day in particular, Emma notices how Killian begins to act strange towards her: blushing at times that do not seem to fit with what she has come to know about him, refusing to meet her eyes, going through periods of prolonged silence. She remembers the day she put everything together, figured out the puzzle he had been setting her up for. It was late in August, the bright sun high in the Pennsylvania sky, and she was on her way out to take Swan Song for her daily ride and groom, but he stopped her on the way to the stables.
"Emma!" When she whips around to find where his voice is coming from, she notices that he looks different than he has before, not in work clothes, but in what looks like his Sunday best: a clean, new pair of slacks and a white button down shirt, though she still sees the tips of his boots peeking out from under the hem of his pants.
"Killian," she calls out to him as he approaches. "What's the special occasion?"
He holds up what he has in his hands, which she can now tell is a basket.
"I packed us a picnic, if you'll join me." He is close enough for her to see his smile, one that starts with his mouth and overflows into this bright blue eyes.
"Of course I'll join you. Where shall we go?"
Catching up with her, he runs his arm through hers and continues to the stables. "I have just the place in mind." After helping her onto Swan Song, he mounts his own colt, a beautiful Morgan he won at auction and deemed 'Jolly Roger' after the traditional pirate flag, since he has a large, white mark that looks like a skull on his flank. He leads her down the trails she knows like the back of her hand, around the corrals, then into the woods that cover over 5 acres of the property. Emma has spent much time in these woods, but most of her free time recently has been spent learning the business from David, or studying her schoolwork with her mother. Killian, however, has been spending as much time as he can learning these woods, something he never had the ability to do in England as a child, or in Boston once they moved there after the death of his mother.
He knows exactly the spot he is taking her, a small clearing by the creek he found one day, with the most perfect view of the small waterfall buried deep in the secrets of the forest. It takes a while for them to reach his destination, but in each other's company, it feels like no time at all. Killian spreads his blanket out over the grass, finding a space that the sun is warming, peeking through the tops of the trees in the mid-morning sun, then sits next to her atop it, spreading out their picnic in front of them: bottles of cola, fresh fruit, sandwiches, candy bars.
Looking at the spread before her, Emma knows that this could not have been a spur-of-the-moment plan of his, especially because he must have grabbed the candy the last time he went to town, which was at least a week ago, not to mention the fruit, and his clean, newly-pressed clothing.
He is oddly quiet, staring at her for long periods of time, and then getting distracted by the landscape. Finally, she presses him for answers.
"Killian, what is going on?"
He turns his attention from the stream back to her, looking deeply into her bright green eyes for a moment, the same green as the leaves with the sunlight shining through them. "I came here to ask you something, Emma," he says softly. "To tell you something important."
She waits for him to continue, taking a bite of one of the soft peaches, but when he does not, she raises her eyebrows at him. "Okay?"
"I have - I've never really been close to anyone my whole life, save my brother, and then he left me. It may have been what my father wanted, which, granted, made it a harder decision, but I needed to leave that life behind, to find something new, and there was always a part of me that hoped this new life would lead me to someone that I would grow to love in a way unlike anything I have ever experienced." He takes a deep breath, looking down at his hands, then smiles up at her. "But I never expected it to happen on my first day at the ranch, with the rancher's own daughter."
"Are you - Killian," she breathes, trying to understand exactly what he is trying to tell her.
"Yes, Emma," he says, eyes shining at her. "With your father's permission, I would like to begin courting you, and - "
"You don't have to court me. That's so old-school of you." She smiles at him through her long eyelashes, her cheeks reddening in the sunlight. "All you have to do is kiss me," she whispers.