Seeing sense is the first step...

When we returned into the house and told Noel, that we were going to stay, the old man was very pleased. He didn´t asked about our companion and I gave him a great credit for it. That the grandmaster had left just like that had dealt me a blow. I hadn´t expected that, because he had always seemed equable to me. I had never thought that he could lose his patience, but obviously his concern about the brotherhood had driven him so far. I just hoped that he hadn´t acted too rashly and that he stayed unharmed until we would meet again. Until then I could do nothing else but hope that I had made the right decision, when I had said that I believed in Noel´s words.

After our return, he ordered us to go to Caleb in the barn so that he could show us our room for the upcoming nights. It was only in the early afternoon but the cloud cover had finally swallowed the sun whole, so that I really had the feeling that I could fall to bed immediately. If one was awaiting us. A possibility to become dry again wouldn´t be so bad either. The stew had warmed me up but I was still soaked through to the bones. Nevertheless I dared to leave the house again and stumped with Connor through the pouring rain to the barn. It was amazingly warm and dry inside, even though I needed to become used to the stable smell. A single oil lamp hang at a wall where some leather laces, pieces of harnesses and ropes hang. Obviously there were one or several horses here but I couldn´t say where they were. The only box here seemed to be empty. Just as there was no sign of Caleb.

I almost came to the conclusion that he wasn´t here, as suddenly a bustling something ran out of the slightly opened boy and jumped up at Connor. Ale, who didn´t deign to look at me. But where the dog was, the boy couldn´t be far away and really: A blonde shock of hair appeared where the dog had come from and looked at us curiously. "Did grandfather send you?"
Connor nodded. "We are going to stay for a while and he said that you could show us where we can sleep."
Caleb frowned and pointed with a brush, he held in his hands, to me. "Is she going to stay, too?" That sounded anything but excited and I knitted my eyebrows disapprovingly. Whatever I had done to the boy, he didn´t seem to like me. Because I hadn´t moved closer to his too large rat of a dog?

The boy didn´t expect an answer anyway, because he had turned towards the box again and told us over his shoulder: "I finish grooming Cherry, then I´ll come."
I frowned. Who or what did he want to groom? The box was empty. Curious I stepped closer and as I glanced over the box´s wall, my mouth stayed open with amazement. Caleb was really grooming a horse, but a tiny one with a tubby belly. Maybe it´s shoulders only reached to my hip and its hooves were as large as a palm of a hand. But what it was lacking of size, it made up with a lot of hair. Shaggy, russet fur and a likewise shaggy black mane, whose tuft was hanging down to the horse´s nostrils and covered its eyes almost completely. I couldn´t remember if I had ever seen such a strange animal. Connor, who had stepped next to me, also appeared surprised. Caleb looked up from his work shortly and when he noticed our gazes, he suddenly grinned widely.
"So you also belong to the strangers who have never seen a Shetland pony before? Even though they are running free in herds over the island."
"If we saw some, we must have thought that they were sheep." At least I couldn´t remember that we had met animals which had looked even slightly like horses.
"What are you doing with such a tiny horse? You can´t ride on it, can you?"
Caleb looked at me frowning and shook his head. "I used to ride on Cherry often but by now I´m too tall. But they are our pack animals on the island. They have stamina, are tough and strong. Once, Cherry carried two baskets full of stones from the coast up to here." Proudly he stretched his shoulders and patted the tiny horse´s croup, which was chewing calmly on its hay.

Slowly I pushed myself into the box and kneeled down in front of the tiny horse, under the distrustful eyes of the boy. I reached out my hand carefully and stroked Cherry´s tuft a bit aside, so that I could look into her big brown eyes, which were looking at me totally calm before the mare nudged me with her nose and hummed quietly. A smile flitted across my face. Obviously I didn´t appear as deterrent on animals as I thought I did after the situation with Ale. "How´s it going, little cherry?" I tickled the smooth nose and lifted my head shortly to grin at Connor, because I just had got an amusing thought.
"Imagine you would sit on her. Maybe you could rather carry her than she could carry you." But even if I would dare to sit on Cherry´s back, I surely could walk on my own feet with her.
Connor looked the tiny mare over and shook his head smirking. "I think I do not even want to try it."
"And Cherry isn´t a toy!" The gaze, Caleb was giving to me, was so punishing, that I raised my hand in a defensive manner. The little one acted like I had asked how Cherry could taste as sausage.
I patted the horse one more time before I left the box again so that Caleb couldn´t keep looking daggers at me. The boy put the brush aside grimly, tickled Cherry shortly and left the box, too, which he locked carefully behind him.

He gave us a signal that we should follow him and led us over a narrow staircase, in the other end of the barn, under the roof which obviously had been extended. Behind a door at the landing was a small living room with a cupboard, a table and a bed.
"Here lived a farmhand some time ago as my grandfather still had been a fisherman. Now the room is vacant but I can bring you blanket and pillow for the bed." Caleb glanced at us from the side. "Are you married? We only have this bed."
In face of this question, I looked at him disbelievingly and shook my head firmly while my cheeks felt suspiciously hot again. "What makes you think that?"
Caleb shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I think adults only share a bed when they are married, or do they not?"
Well, what a smart tot. He wasn´t wrong somehow, but it didn´t give him the right to ask this question. He was a young boy and this was not his business.
"I think in your age, you shouldn´t worry about that." I smiled smugly, principally to hide my embarrassment and crossed my arms in front of my chest while I looked to the bed. Somehow I lost my anticipation of one.
The blonde boy shrugged his shoulders again and looked at Connor with a gaze, I could only call precocious. "I wouldn´t have married her either. She´s quite strenuous."
Stunned and with open mouth I looked after him, as he left the room, while Connor cleared his throat, as if he had to suppress a laugh. It seemed like I had the joke on my side again but I didn´t like it at all. Angry I stumped to the open door, shut it and stayed with my arm leaned against it, while I took the tricorn from my head with the other hand and slapped it against my thigh in an irregular pace. "How old is he? Ten? Since when is a ten-years-old so cheeky? I would have been put over one´s knees, if I had talked to an adult like that."
The slapping stopped and I looked at Connor, hoping that he would agree with me. Only that I wouldn´t be alone in my embarrassment about Caleb´s words. But the assassin only cleared his throat again before he answered diplomatically. "I think the both of you hadn´t a good start."
I snorted indignantly. "I didn´t do anything to him."
"You shook his dog with your foot."
"Because this beast...animal attacked me!"
Connor pushed the hood from his head and gave me an amused look before he nodded into the direction of the bed. "If it reassures you: I will sleep on the floor. You can have it."
My indignation faded only slightly, when he reminded me of this "problem" and determined I shook my head.
"You´re still wounded. You shouldn´t sleep on the floor."
"But I will not let you sleep on the floor."
"I won´t let you either."
Connor frowned and now I was the one, who smirked in amusement. So we were against each other with our conflicting opinions again. But I had to admit defeat in the evening, because Connor kept insisting that he, as the man, had to sleep on the floor and let me, as the woman, have the comfortable bed. To share it had never been under discussion because Caleb had been right on this point. You shared a bet if you were married or lived in another relationship. Everything else wasn´t respectable even though we had already shared the floor. But a bed...was a bed and this one wasn´t quite large so that you wouldn´t lay wide apart. That Connor let me have it honoured him but I had a bad conscience at the same time. He was the one of us who was wounded. Although it seemed like he felt better from day to day, I was always worried when he screw up his face only slightly. I just didn´t want to begrudge him to rest at night if he wasn´t able to do so during the day. But Connor had firmly stuck to his principles and so I had given in. No matter how strenuous I maybe was, I didn´t felt like having a discussion about a bed.

Nevertheless I asked several times, if he felt reasonably comfortable, when I sat cross-legged on the bed and watched Connor carefully taking off his weapons and putting them availably close. Caleb had brought one blanket and pillow each and Connor had prepared his bedding on the floor, right next to the bed and when he finally lay down, he gave me a reassuring gaze. "I am alright."
I nodded slowly while I chewed on my lower lip and searched for the smallest sign of pain on his face. But it became unpleasant for me that he returned my gaze so calmly and so I finally lay down myself, not without extinguish the lamp on the table before.
Lying on my back, I stared in to the darkness and before I could prevent it, my thoughts wandered to Lester again. Where had he gone to?
I sighed quietly, turned to the side and crawled to the edge of the bed to look down to Connor. The moon was full and so the light, which fell through the small cracks in the roof, enlightened the room enough to make out the silhouette of the assassin. He lay on the side, his eyes opened and directed into the darkness.
"Connor? May I ask you something?"
I could see how he blinked several times, before he turned on his back and looked up to me.
"Of course."
Slowly I rolled onto my belly, laid my arms on each other in front of me and bedded my head on them, while I was still thinking about of how I should formulate this question. I didn´t know which answer I was hoping for or better to say, what I wanted to do with an answer. Maybe calm myself?
"Do you really think that it would be wrong, if Lester uses the Shroud for himself? He don´t want to do something bad, he only wants to help his brothers. Just imagine he could safe those who get wounded or killed during a fight against the templars! Nobody would have to die in fight."
"Nobody except of templars or those who cannot benefit from the Shroud." Connor sat up, crossed his legs and propped one arm onto the bed. His gaze was totally serious, but his voice was calm.
"Who has the right to decide who lives and who dies? Whose life is more worthy? To kill someone is nothing you should do thoughtlessly. But to cheat the death to let others die is wrong. The death is something definite and nobody should have the right to change that."
I mulled over every single word of him and knew that he was saying the truth. Apart from the story of Easter, it was unnatural to call the dead back into life, although their death maybe had been senseless. Connor was right. No life was more worthy than another but there was still something I asked myself.
"But wouldn´t it appeal to you to have this power? Imagine you could rescue someone who is close to you. Wouldn´t you do it? Imagine you...could have rescued your mentor."
Even in the faint light I could see that Connor was struggling for an answer. First he frowned but then his gaze slit thoughtfully back to the ground and finally he looked at me again.
"Honestly, I do not know what I would do", he said quietly.

During the following days I could barely think further about Lester and the Piece of Eden because Noel really roped us in for several tasks, right from the first day on. Had I instantly assumed naively that there wasn´t much to do out here and in this environment, I was put right quickly. Because the island was so sparsely populated, separated from the mainland and didn´t offer much food, the most part of work during a day was about that there was always enough to eat. For the people as well as for the animals. Grandfather and grandson had compiled an herb and vegetable garden behind the house, which now, in summer, was offering much root vegetable that was made into stew or food for the horse in the evening. I had never paid attention to farming or something similar before but I quickly noticed how calming it could be to sit in a vegetable patch, to weed, to harvest turnips or to dig the ground over. I enjoyed this kind of work and I also fulfilled every tasks Noel gave me inside the house without moaning. My head had no problems with the unusual work but my body was soon saying something else. Right after the first day I had the first blisters on my hands which however weren´t bothering me in the beginning. But as my blisters began to get blisters, every small movement became a painful torture, which I tried to ignore as good as I could. I forbid myself to wail or to let my tasks slide while the others were doing their own but sometime, I couldn´t hide my abused hands anymore. When Connor had unfortunately noticed one evening, how I had applied an herb paste on the sore spots with quiet lamentation, he had instantly reacted shocked and had thought that I had hurt myself. But as I had ground my teeth and explained to him, that my hands were just too spoiled to be used in work, he had forced the promise out of me, to tell him when a task became too exhausting for me.

From this day on he always kept a watchful eye on me and even though I had always been irritated about his almost obsessive wish to protect me from the templars, I was now touched that he obviously was also concerned about my general well-being. It was a side of him he hadn´t shown yet or which I maybe just hadn´t seen. By now I had the feeling that I got to know him different than usual, now that we weren´t mainly busy with the search for the Shroud anymore. Not more relaxed, because I often saw how his gaze slit observantly into the distance, but not as tensed as usual. Our next action was out of our hands. We had to wait until Noel decided to help us and so we let the time pass by and came to rest in this way.

Four days had passed like that, when Connor, Caleb and I went for a walk along the coast. It was an amazingly warm day in face of that we were so far in the north. The sun shined down from a blue sky and warmed the usual cold sea air up. It was pleasant and after the last days full of work, I was glad about the short time out, Noel had allowed us. I had rolled up the sleeves of my shirt and taken off the boots and enjoyed the feeling of the warm sunlight on my skin and the smooth grass under my feet, while I was dreamily tickling the ears of Cherry, who was stumping next to me and tore off a tuft of grass from time to time and chewed on it with relish.
I had to chuckle about Caleb, who was excitedly jumping around Connor and tried to convince him to shoot with his bow on something, because the assassin had his weapons with him like always. The objection, that there was nothing to shoot on and that Connor didn´t want to waste his arrows, didn´t impress Caleb at all. Over and over again he began to beg and I gave the assassin a great credit for staying so patient and keeping his faint smile. Even when Ale was infected by his little master´s excitement and jumped in front of the assassin´s feet sometime. Both of them, the boy and the dog, really idolized Connor while I was still eyed up with light displeasure. But I had already gotten used to it and was rather amused about it than angry.

Finally the blonde boy gave up his try to convince Connor, as we decided to stop for a rest on a meadow close to the cliff. Now he played with his dog, chased him over the meadow and I had never seen a dog you could actually play tag with. Every time Caleb caught Ale, the boy doubled back and then was chased by his dog until Ale could jump up at him and stormed away again. I sat down into the grass and watched this spectacle with amusement while Connor stood and kept an eye on our environment. I had to blink against the sun and shielded my eyes from the bright light with my hand as I looked up to him. "Everything is alright. Nothing to see, so why don´t you sit down?"
He looked down to me, nodded slowly and sat down next to me, his gaze now turned to Caleb and Ale. "It is difficult to trust the peace if you are asking yourself the whole time, what is awaiting you", he said and I drew up my legs to bed my head on my knees while I followed his gaze.
"That´s correct. But I think that it won´t take so long anymore, until Noel tells us what he knows about the Shroud. Until then, we should enjoy the peace. I mean, there´s not much where someone could lie in wait for us." I smirked as I made a vague gesture towards the distant view the island was offering.
"Maybe you are right."

Silently we watched the game between dog and child and the easiness, the two of them were exuding, was actually making it easier to forget every worry. Sometime they came to us and Caleb fell on his back into the grass, while Ale trudged to Connor and let him tickle his belly panting.
"Now I´m hot", groaned the boy and I smirked.
"Take a cool bath then."
I meant these words as a joke but the boy rolled onto his belly and grinned widely.
"A good idea for a weird woman." He still called me that, even though he already knew my name of course.

Caleb leaped up to his feet, took off his shirt and before we knew what happened, he had run towards the cliff and I cried out quietly as he jumped over the edge. In an instant I was on my feet, stormed towards the cliff and could barely see how the boy landed down in the water with a loud splash. Shortly afterwards his blond hair appeared between the waves and he laughed lively.
"Are you tired of living?", I shouted down to him and he looked up.
"Why? It isn´t high and there are no rocks here, you could hit. I always do it like that."
He always did it like that? A ten year old boy always jumped circa five metres down into the water just like that? I almost believed I would renounce my faith but obviously Caleb wasn´t the only one with questionable bathing methods.

First I heard a rattle behind me, then the rustling of clothes and when I turned around, I appalled looked to Connor, who had removed his weapons, outer clothing and boots and stood next to me to look down to the water.
"Don´t tell me you want to do that, too."
But I had barely said that, when Connor started to take a head dive and landed inside the water next to Caleb shortly afterwards. Now the two of them were swimming down there and let themselves be rocked back and forth by the shallow waves, while they looked up to me.
"Now you have to dare to do it, weird woman!", Caleb shouted up cheekily and I tipped my forehead.
"I´m not as insane as you are."
"You´re just a coward."
I snorted. The nerves of this boy.

Determined I shook my head and withdrew from the cliff´s edge. They could do whatever they wanted. Slowly I sank back into the grass again, lay down on my back and closed my eyes as the sun shined into my face. Next to me I heard the chewing of Cherry and the panting of Ale, who had withdrawn into the shadow, the body of the small mare was casting. A smile flitted across my face because I enjoyed these peaceful moments beyond all measure and I almost fell asleep, as a water drop fell onto my cheek. Blinking I opened my eyes, expecting that it had begun to rain, but there stood Connor, bending over me, the hands propped onto his knees. I hadn´t heard him coming and he had been clever enough to stand in a way with that he didn´t cast a shadow on me. I looked him over with distrust while Caleb appeared behind him. When both of them began to grin whimsically, it wasn´t quite inspiring confidence and I sat up.
"What is it?"
"You should try the water. It is really pleasant." Connor reached out his hand to me and I looked at it, as if it was a poisonous snake.
"I don´t think so."
"She´s a coward, like I said!", Caleb squealed and jumped merrily from one leg onto the other.
"I´m just sentimentally about my life. That has nothing to do with cowardice."
Connor chuckled and pointed to the cliffs. "Believe me. Nothing can happen. If you want it, we will jump together."
"Or we throw you down."
Connor shook his head but this mischievous sparkle in his eyes said something different.

I stood up, sought refuge behind Cherry and pointed threateningly back and forth between Caleb and Connor. "If you only come to one single, stupid thought, I will show you how strenuous I can really become!"
They exchanged a short gaze and as the shrugged their shoulders, I really thought that I had got rid of them. But then they suddenly ran towards me, one from the left, the other from the right side.
"Ohhhh, no!" I had to laugh but took flight before Caleb could grab my arm. I ran and heard them coming after me. From time to time, the boy shouted amused that I shouldn´t be such a coward but I surely wouldn´t let them get me into the water. We raced crisscross over the meadow and as I thought, they would give up, I was grabbed by my hip and lifted onto two strong arms.
"Connor! Let me down or I will take your tomahawk and hit it around your ears at the next opportunity!"
But as much as I kicked about, the assassin kept me firmly in his grip and carried me towards the cliff with quick steps.
"Is that how you treat a woman?", I tried it again, as I caught a short glimpse down to the sea. "I don´t want that."
"Stretch your feet and put your head against my chest, then nothing will happen. I will hold you, I promise." His grin had become an honest smile and I pushed my lower lip forward. When he told me, that nothing could happen, I believed him but...it wasn´t fair! These were five metres! At least.
"I´m not dressed for..." The rest of the sentence was drowned in a shrill scream, as Connor really jumped from the cliff and flew towards the sea in a stretched jump. With me on his arms.

Just out of reflex, I did what he had told me, before we struck the water. The assassin released me underwater so that I could struggle to the surface on my own, where I came up snorting and stroke some strands of hair out of my face.
"Are you alright?" Connor swam next to me and shortly he seemed to have a bad conscience after all.
"Yoouuu..." I narrowed my eyes before I swung back with my arms and struck him with a wave of water into the face. Snorting he wiped over his eyes and as he heard, that I had begun to laugh, a grin spread over his face.
"I will take revenge sometime, I swear!"

Even though I had been afraid of the jump, I couldn´t do anything else but laugh about the situation, because it had been not as worse as I had thought. In the meantime Caleb had also come to the surface next to us and he got a wave of water into his face, too for what he immediately got his revenge. A real water fight flared up between us three and I asked myself, when I last had been so lively in my life. Probably as a child because we were nothing else but three children chasing each other around in the water, pushing us down and competing each other in swimming. If someone of London would see me like this, he probably would crinkle his nose, but I didn´t care at the moment. It was fun to forget all the adult seriousness just for the moment and again I was pleasantly surprised about Connor. I had never thought that he would have a funny side and I couldn´t hold myself from grinning, as I watched how he and Caleb put on a duel to find out, who of them could dive longest.

We spend some time in the water like that until Caleb announced that he was too cold and climbed out of the water. Connor and I followed him but instead of leaving the water after the assassin, I stayed back and bit my lower lip contritely. Confused Connor looked down at me and suddenly appeared worried. "Is something wrong?"
"Well..." I grinned embarrassed. "Before we jumped down, I said that I´m not dressed for swimming."
He cocked his head. "Yes? And...?"
"My shirt is white..."
Connor frowned shortly but then he seemed to understand the problem and lifted his hands. "Wait here."
I did as I was told, because I had no other choice and watched smirking, how he hurried up the narrow path along the cliff, disappeared behind the edge shortly and finally came back with his coat. He opened it, held it out to me and indicated to me, with his head demonstratively turned away from me, that I should leave the water. I couldn´t hold back a chuckle before I climbed up the rocks and slipped into the coat. He was way too large for me but at least I could wrap it around my body, so that I didn´t revealed too much of myself.
"Is it good?", Connor asked and I nodded smiling.
"Thank you."

We went back to the meadow where Caleb had already dressed himself and laid in the grass next to his dog, to let himself dry by the sun, which slowly began to set. Connor and I sat down, too and I wrapped the coat tighter around me as I began to feel cold. It didn´t escape the assassin´s notice, who was buttoning up his shirt and he glanced at me. "Are you cold?"
"A bit but..." I nodded down to the coat. "It helps."
He nodded and slowly sank down onto his back.
I looked to the sea, which was as red as the sky in face of the setting sun. The wind became colder but it was still pleasant to sit here. Not least because Connor´s coat was warming me up and dreamily I wrapped it even tighter around my body before I looked to Connor, who had directed his gaze to the sky but had closed his eyes. The feeling, that I had seen a different Connor during the last days, came over me again. But this time I seriously asked myself, if he hadn´t been like this the whole time.
Had I really wanted to see this grim man whose cold behaviour had irritated me over and over again? I had thought worse about him than he actually was. Wasn´t he the one who hadn´t left me behind when others would have done? Who had brought my father´s last will to me, hoping that it could help me? Who had brought me back into my homeland? Who had always been worried about me? No matter how annoying I had found it. Had I really wronged him?
I bit my lower lip when I had to admit to myself, that it had been like that. But why?
Because you always wanted to cure yourself from this illness you obviously never got rid of.
Out of pure stubbornness, I had actually tried to talk myself into thinking something that my mind, but not my heart, had wanted to believe.
That I hadn´t fallen in love with Connor.