A Woman's Fateful Knight

In the spring Heather nervously waited beyond the barns of Ayr (which the English had been using as their barracks), where a beautiful meadow met a small pond, overlooked by the pigs and cows grazing in the land immediately next to the barns. She fiddled with her dress as she leaned against a tree and waited. She did this every day for three weeks, even when it was raining. As a breeze rustled the leaves of the tree, she would warm herself with the memories of their meetings the days before.

Alexander approached on his horse. Heather always knew he was near because she could feel the vibrations of his horse in the trunk of the tree but still, she pretended not to know he was there until he dismounted his horse. He walked to the edge of the pond and picked up a stone.

“If I can skim this stone all the way to the other side then we should be married,” he proclaimed.

Heather watched as he swung his arm back and whipped it forward releasing the stone on to the pond’s surface. The stone skimmed and lost momentum halfway.

She smiled. “You shouldn’t make such bets when you don’t know if I’d agree to it or not.”

Alexander fell to his knees before her as if he had taken a sword through the heart. She embraced him and he clung to her waist like a little boy.