Diamond
The Carsons' breath blew smokey into the bitter night air. On nights such as this, walking home from the Abbey made both of them begin contemplating retirement longingly.
The crunch of their feet in the hard snow was the only sound as they made their way down the track. The walk wasn't far, and on a warm summer night, they would linger, talking and teasing each other, enjoying the warm cocooning night. But on a night like this, they hurried, arm in arm, tucked closely to each other's side.
As the track curved around and out of a copse of trees, the clear night sky suddenly appeared over them. And Charles stopped, throwing his head back and searching the spangled black expanse above them.
"Charles? Have you gone daft?" Elsie asked him, tugging him impatiently. He would pick a night when she could barely feel her toes to do some stargazing.
"Just a quick look, Elsie. I've not seen the stars so clearly in quite some time." He stole a quick glance at her red cheeks and impatient eyes.
She humored him, not without an irritated huff, and blew on her hands as she watched his sharp eyes criss cross the heavens, looking for who knew what. Suddenly, he paused and pointed.
"There," he said enthusiastically. "Do you see those four stars? The diamond?"
She looked in the direction his finger pointed, following it from the bright star at the apex to the others. "Yes," she said through chattering teeth. "What of it?"
"My father liked those stars. He'd point them out to me when I was a boy, and I'd be out with him at the stables at night."
As he spoke, he gathered her closer to him, pulling her against his body to help warm her. She looked down from the stars and wrapped her arms around him, gratefully burying her head in his chest.
"I asked what they were called, and he didn't know what anyone else called them, but he called them my mother's name. He always said, he'd never been able to give my mother the diamonds she deserved, so she'd have to settle for the one up in the sky."
Elsie chuckled and hugged him closer. "And did she?"
"She always said diamonds were foolish for a woman who had to actually use her hands to work, so she preferred the one in the sky."
"I think I'd have liked your mother," Elsie said, smiling in approval. A shiver ran through her.
"Well, enough of this," Charles said firmly. "Time to get home before we freeze to the ground."
They set off briskly again. As their cottage came into view, Elsie leaned her head closer to Charles' shoulder.
"Thank you for showing me your mother's stars, Charles."
"Oh, they're your stars now," he said with a chuckle. "I've called them 'Elsie' for over a decade, you know."
"I didn't, but I'm glad to know that now."
In spite of the cold, they lingered for a moment on the step of the cottage, taking one last look up at the brilliant night sky. When Charles found the stars in her eyes too much to resist, they hurried inside to warm their chilly cottage and bed.
A/N- If you're interested, the stars Charles points out to Elsie are the constellation Auriga the Charioteer, in the NW quadrant. Capella, the brightest star in the grouping is a golden color and is the sixth brightest star in our sky. It's quite visible in the Yorkshire countryside in February, and really does make a lovely diamond in the sky.