Cottage by the Sea

He stood on the edge cliff near the sea while the storm whipped around him, enraged and hostile---matched his mood. The lightning struck from the sky and met violently with the sand on the shore beneath him, causing the ground to shimmy under his feet. Maybe he should get in his lorry and head back towards his cottage on the west end of town. He’d left his job to pursue the craft that flowed within his heart, and when that hadn’t brought in enough money to suit his girlfriend, she’d left him with only a note. Then today, he’d met with a potential agent to sell his story, but they’d canceled at the last minute, leaving him sitting alone in the pub drowning his sorrows. 

He ran a hand through his wet hair to brush his dark locks from his eyes as he listened to the boom of thunder as it crept closer inland. He turned towards his car when he thought he heard a faint cry in the wind. He strained his ears against the onslaught of wind to listen to the cry again. He walked back towards the edge of the cliff and squinted against the rain to see what looked like a man attempting to drag a naked woman from the sea. 

Without a second thought, he ran down the cliff face towards the attempted abduction, and as he neared, the woman’s cries became louder and more urgent as she struggled against the man twice her size. When the man caught sight of him, he dropped the woman’s legs and ran off into the darkness. Declan took off his heavy wool sweater and covered the woman with it as he helped her stand on unsteady legs. 

“What’s your name?” Declan raised his voice to be heard over the storm. 

“I...don’t know.” She shivered. 

“I’m Declan Boyd. If you’ll trust me. I’ll take you to my car and call the Garda.” 

She nodded. 

He watched as she struggled to take a step, and frowning, he carefully scooped her into his arms. He climbed back up the cliff towards his lorry and placed her inside. He started the engine and cranked the heat, but when he grabbed his cell phone from the console, she stilled his hand. 

“Please. Don’t call anyone.”

“But you need help.” 

“Can you not help me?”

“I...guess I can. I’ll take you to my cottage where you can get showered and clean warm clothes. Then maybe we can figure out who you are.”

The woman simply nodded again before staring out at the coast as they drove quietly through the storm to his cottage by the sea. They pulled into a long driveway that led to the lonely white place with smoke billowing from the chimney. He helped the woman out of the lorry and into the house. 

She stood, soaked to the bone in his woolen jumper that was large enough to brush the top of her knees, in his tiny kitchen. He couldn’t tell what color her hair was since it was darkened from the rain. Her eyes were huge on her lovely petite face, cheeks were flushed from the chilled air, and her lips were the color of berries. 

“Ah...Ma’am?”

She hesitantly turned towards him. “Yes?”

“The shower is this way.” Declan held a hand out. She took it, and he carefully helped her down the hall when she stood wringing her hands in the bathroom. “What’s the matter?”

“What is this?” She waved her delicate hand to encompass the bathroom. 

“Did that man hit your head?”

“No.” She turned those substantial dark eyes on him, and his heart sped up. “Why?”

“Ah. This is a bathroom.” He turned on the shower, and she made a high-pitched squeal that had him smiling despite himself. His throat went dry when she pulled off his jumper and let it fall to the tiled floor with an audible plop. He made a strangled sound and tried to stare at the wall behind her to avoid leering at her perfect alabaster skin. “Oh. God. I will bring you clothes.” He backed out of the bathroom as fast as his legs would carry him and leaned against the closed door. He let out a slow breath before going to his bedroom to find something for her to wear. 

After sneaking the clothes into the bathroom and telling her that if she needed anything to call for him, he settled at his small kitchen table with his tea and biscuits as he did an internet search. Something was not quite right about the woman he’d brought home with him. First, any normal woman would have never agreed to go to a strange man’s home after an attempted kidnapping. Second, her eyes spoke of fair folk, and he’d been raised long enough in Ireland to recognize magic when it stared back at him. 

“Thank you for the linens.”  A soft voice broke his concentration, and he spilled his tea. 

“Oh.” He stood quickly and grabbed a towel from the counter to clean his mess. “You’re welcome.”

“Thank you for saving me as well. It was brave of you.” 

“Oh. Hmm. Brave? No. I’m just glad I was there to help you.” He smiled over at her and noticed that her hair was gray with black spots, and it hung in flowing waves to her waist. 

She walked tentatively closer to him and glanced at his computer screen. With one eyebrow, she looked back at him. “Think I’m a Fae. Do ya?”

He shrugged. “Just doing some book research.” 

“You’re a teller of stories then?” She took the empty seat at the table and poured herself some tea. Smiling, over the rim at him. “I happen to love stories.” 

Declan reclaimed his chair. “I am attempting to be but haven’t much luck.”

She nibbled a biscuit. “Your heart will get what it desires. Bravery doesn’t go unrewarded.”

“Do you remember anything about what happened before I rescued you?” 

She polished off a biscuit before selecting another one. “Yes.”

He watched as she shoved the entire thing into her mouth. “Do you want me to cook you food?”

“Food? If it’s not too much trouble. I tend to be hungry after…”

He was already at the stove heating a pan. “Sorry, I don’t have much here to offer except some eggs and bread.”

“That’s fine with me. Thank you.” 

“So you were saying...before I interrupted you. What are you hungry after?”

“The transition from seal to human. It takes a lot of us.” 

He bobbled the pan but managed to keep his eyes trained on the task at hand and his breathing calm. “And who are “us”?” 

“You are a smart, observant male. I am one of the fair folk. A Selkie, to be exact.” 

He dished the food onto a plate and was proud of the fact that his hands didn’t shake as he set the plate down in front of her. “A Selkie?”

“Aye.”

“And what was that man doing to you...ma’am?”

“My name is Aoife. And don’t you know of the Selkies? I thought every Irishman knew all about the fair folk.”

“Aoife is a beautiful name. And no. I grew up in America for half my life until my parents divorced and my father moved us to Ireland.” 

“Then let me tell the storyteller a mythical tale.” She finished off her plate of food and leaned back in the chair. “The myth is simple and true. We enjoy sliding out of our seal skin, walking, or stretching as humans near the sea. However, if a man or woman steals our seal skin while we are vulnerable, they can enslave us for as long as they hide our skins. When the world was simpler, and humans believed in magic, we were always at risk for enslavement.” 

Her dark eyes drifted into the tale. “Men can force a Selkie to marry them, bear their children, and she will have no choice but to stay until she recovers the skin.”

“That sounds...awful. No real man wants a wife who is forced to be with him.”

Aoife smiled at him, sadly. “Truth in that, but it doesn’t change the fact that some men or women crave magic or beauty anyway they could get it.” She sipped her tea. “I thought I was safe tonight with the storm and wild wind. I wasn’t.”

“So we need to find your seal skin and get you home.”

“You would give up my magic and a life with me? Without question?”

“Of course. You don’t belong to me.”

“Huh. There is a first time for everything.” 

They spent the rest of the night curled up together in front of the fireplace while the storm continued to swirl around outside. She talked of life in the sea, adventures beyond even his wildest imagination, and listened on bated breath for all of his tales of the modern world. They didn’t sleep a wink till the sun had begun to rise, couldn’t, as they fell into the soft, heady surprise of budding love. 

Declan left her covered in a heavy blanket and added more peat to the woodstove before he dressed for the day. Her beautiful hair was spread out around her gorgeous face like the halo of a sea goddess. For a moment, he could understand why men coveted the Fae, but he’d been raised to believe all were free and equal, so he would never abide a someone forcing such a beautiful creature into a life of enslavement and rape. 

He got into his lorry and headed to town. Last night was too dark to tell which man from town it was that stole Aoife’s sealskin, but there were only a few single men in town, and he knew them all. It was a place to start. He headed to the pub where he ordered a tea with a cup of oatmeal as he chatted and listened to all the men gossip before they headed off to work. 

Finn walked in after he’d been there only a few minutes. Finn was a rail thin man with dark shaggy hair, bright blue eyes, and a weary smile who spoke with a thick brogue and a mix of English and Irish. Declan had graduated with Finn and the bartender Patrick. The three of them had been friends since Declan arrived on the Isle. But things had been tense between them the last few years since Finn’s two youngest children looked more like Patrick than they did Finn. No one spoke of it, but they all noticed. Finn sat next to Declan and ordered a whiskey tea from Patrick. 

“Finn, awfully early to be addin’ whiskey to the tea.” Declan sipped his own and eyed his friend with concern. 

“Was a long night, and I be needin’ somethin’ to get my brain in gear. What’re you doing here this mornin’? You never come out to bricfeasta.” 

“I was in a mood and needed company.” 

Patrick snorted as he set the tea-laced whiskey in front of Finn. “Here that Finn? The artist’s got a mood.” 

“Aye.” Finn slammed the whiskey tea with vigor and stood. “Well, moods don’t pay me bills or put food in the clann’s faces. So I best be shovin’ off to my paycheck.” 

“Slán.”

“Aye. Slán to ye both.”

Patrick and Declan watched Finn exit, and without a shadow of guilt for the pain, he’d caused his friend Patrick went right back to work. Declan finished his meager breakfast and ordered a full Irish breakfast to go. 

When it was ready, Patrick sat it questioningly in front of Declan. “Since when you eat this?”

“Since I was craving it.”

Patrick mopped up the bar in front of him. “Alright. Were you out on the cliff’s last night?”

“Aye. How’d you know that?”

“Mary Alice and I saw you on our way to my flat.” 

“Does Finn know you were taking Mary Alice to your flat last night?”

Patrick shrugged. “If he doesn’t, he’s been blind for years.” He signed. “Don’t look at me like that, now. Neither one of them believe in divorce...Mary Alice and I love each other. They should never have married so young.”

“You know that's still wrong, right?”

Patrick scowled. “Judge not, Declan.”

Declan had this conversation before with Patrick and knew that no matter what he said, it wouldn’t change the path the three of them were on. He held his hands up in surrender. “I’ll mind my own.” Declan picked up his to-go box and walked towards his lorry. 

“Declan!” Finn’s voice cut through his inner monologue. 

“Yes?”

“Did you see anything weird out on the cliff’s last night?”

“Did everyone in town watch me as I vented on the cliff’s last night?”

“Probably. But did you?”

The beautiful Selkie currently resting on his couch flashed into his mind. “Ah. Nope. No. Why?”

“The town is a buzz that someone caught a Selkie. Like an actual Fae. Isn’t that wild?”

“And imaginary. I know it’s against my rules as an Irishman to say this but Fae...aren’t real, Finn.”

Finn hissed. “Course they’re real, Declan. You just haven’t felt the magic.” Finn stormed off towards his work, and Declan slid into the cab of his lorry. 

Oh. He’d felt the magic. And he’d do anything to protect her from the rest of them.

She was pacing back and forth, holding the note he’d left in her hands when he walked into the house. She froze and turned towards him with tears shimmering in her eyes. 

He rushed to her. “What? What's wrong?”

“You left me, and I can’t read what this said.”

“Oh, sweets. I’m sorry I didn’t think about that at all. I just said I was running to grab you some breakfast and see if I could hear about your sealskin.” 

He gathered her to him, and she rested her head against his shoulder. “I’m glad you are back.” 

“Let’s get you some food, and then we will go to town. We will buy you some clothes and tonight we dance at the pub.” 

They spent the day together and walked into the pub that night to have dinner. Patrick eyed the beautiful woman on the arm of Declan with awe and envy as they sat at his bar. 

“Who’s this then?” 

“This is my friend Aoife,” Declan ordered Guinness and pie for the both of them. 

“Merry Meet, Aoife.” Patrick set the drinks down in front of them. “We got us a decent band tonight. Eat, Drink and Be Merry.”

Declan and Aoife did just that. Before he knew what was happening, he was twirling around the dance floor with the gorgeous Selkie. When she threw her head back with unbridled laughter, he slipped further into love. She reached up on her tiptoes and placed a kiss on his lips, and he was lost. 

“Time to go home.” Declan pulled a laughing Aoife out of the pub doors and right into Finn.  “Hey. You’re out late.”

Finn scowled at Declan and Aoife. “I knew it was you.” 

His tone took the jubilation out of both Declan and Aoife. “What?”

“Last night. I knew you were the one who stole the Selkie from me. Finders Keepers, Declan. She belongs to me.” Finn’s knife glinted in the low street light. 

“You? Why would you need a Selkie? You’re a married man.”

“Pfff. Mary Alice spends more time in Patrick’s bed than mine. Give the Selkie to me, and we can forget everything.” 

Declan pulled Aoife behind him. “No, Finn, she belongs to no man.”

Finn waved a grey spotted seal skin in his other hand. “I have her skin. She belongs to me. I don’t want to hurt you, Declan, but I will take what’s mine.”

Declan didn’t think he grabbed the knife blade, ignoring it slicing into his palm, and shoved Finn off balance. With his free hand, he snatched the skin away from Finn and pushed it at Aoife. “Run, Aoife. Run, home.” 

“But...you...” Aoife cried. 

Declan gave Finn a final shove that sent him tumbling into a puddle. He turned towards Aoife and placed his non-injured hand on her cheek. “Go, love. Be free.” 

She kissed his lips once more before she ran towards the cliffs with her sealskin. 

“No!” Finn shouted and stumbled up to run after her. 

Declan held him firm. “Let her go, Finn. The problems with your marriage aren’t her responsibility.” He turned Finn to face him. “Finn, talk to Mary Alice and let it go. She and Patrick will not stop seeing each other, so either chose to live that way or chose divorce.” 

Shame flooded Finn’s face as he dropped the knife with a clang. “Make sure she makes it home safe.” Shoulders hunched; he walked away. 

Declan ran towards the cliffs in time to see a grey spotted seal slip beneath the waves. He sat on the edge and watched the waves for hours, hoping to see Aoife one more time, but she never showed again. Heartbroken, Declan made his way home and back into his boring life. 

Six months later. 

“Thank you! This is the greatest news I’ve had in months.” Declan paced his kitchen on the phone with his new agent. “A three-book deal? Great. Thank you.” He picked up his tea, and the soft knock on the door caught him off-guard. When he pulled it open, he dropped his cup, spilling the tea to the floor. 

She stood, her deep dark eyes glistening while the summer breeze swirled around her. “Declan.” 

“Aoife.”  He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her to him for a soul-searing kiss.

The Selkie and the man spent their remaining years raising children and loving in the cottage by the sea.