Lady Adalyn (The Saga Of Wolfbridge Manor Book 1), Sahara Kelly [the best e book reader .TXT] 📗

“Daniel,” she whispered, her heart still pounding with fear. “Hold on, my love.”

As if he heard her, he looked up, his hair streaming with water his hands white where they held him steady. “I love you,” he said.

She understood the words even though they were muttered over the raging waters. She heard them with her heart and her soul. “I love you too.”

“I have the rope.” Jeremy stumbled down, panting and holding a sturdy length around his shoulder.

“Right then.” Giles and Evan worked their way down the bank and managed to throw the end to Daniel, as Jeremy secured the other one to the trunk.

“Pull him up,” said Giles, grabbing the rope.

With three of them lending their backs to the task, Daniel was free of the river and on relatively dry land within moments. He staggered to his saviours and put his arms around them all as they huddled for a brief moment of gratitude.

No words were spoken, but some hearty back slaps were exchanged—and then he was at her side.

She reached for his hand. “I was so…” She couldn’t finish. Couldn’t keep calm and controlled. She just threw herself into his arms and hugged every bit of him she could reach.

Then her determined strength finally failed her, and she burst into tears, weeping all over his chest.

After that, everything blurred a little until they returned to their original spot.

“Look Adalyn,” Daniel turned her head toward the river. “See? It’s diverting a lot of water now. The lake on the other side of the hill will be filling up harmlessly, and the flood levels down around our part of the river will fall soon if they haven’t already.”

“We did it.” Jeremy and Evan came up beside them and stared at it.

“We did,” Giles added his mite.

“And we’re all here to tell the tale,” grinned the irrepressible Jeremy. “I would count that as a good day’s work.”

Adalyn finally let go of Daniel. “As would I,” she smiled. “In fact, I think I should give everyone the rest of the day off.”

The laughter was tired but genuine.

She looked at Giles. “Let’s go home.”

He nodded. “A good idea, my Lady. But I will ride. I think Daniel deserves some time off his feet. After all, he’s been swimming today, and he was never too good at that, if I remember correctly.”

Daniel grinned at the gentle jest. “You’re right. I wasn’t much good at swimming. But today, I thank God I could at least stay afloat…”

Adalyn hugged him again and then led him to the carriage as the others untied their mounts and readied themselves for the trip home.

When the door closed on them, Adalyn let her feelings show. She reached for Daniel’s head and brought it to hers, kissing him with all the passion and fear and worry that had built up inside her.

Daniel responded with the same enthusiasm, and neither came up for air for several minutes.

“I thought I’d lost you,” she breathed, touching his face with her hands.

“Never. You’ll never lose me,” he said, kissing her again. “That’s a promise.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” she smiled, letting him go and settling beside him. “So I hope you mean it.”

“Can you doubt it?”

She glanced at him, struck by the serious expression on his face. “Daniel?”

“I am yours, Adalyn. For eternity. Yes, I mean it. And yes, I love you that much. Come what may, I will always be yours.”

Inside Adalyn something turned over, settled and warmed her.

Perhaps her future had just taken care of itself.

Dear Diary,

I am in love. Really in love. I believe I have found the man who will fill my life with joy.

Although these are words that any woman would relish, they are still causing me some concern, since my situation is - well it is not that of any other woman.

Let me relate how these things have come about, since the recent days have been interesting and quite full of adventure, compared to some of my other entries.

Being confronted with a dire emergency, the results of which might have been disastrous, I had to think fast about matters of which I knew nothing. Nobody has ever looked at me for suggestions or answers in a crisis, and the fact that I was able to help in any way, no matter how small, has been a great triumph for me. The thanks and hugs I received after my small efforts on behalf of my tenants are gifts worth more than any gold or jewels.

Let me tell you, dear Diary, that a flood is a terrible thing; the inexorable progress of water as it encroaches on the gentle land around it…well it is terrifying.

But it is this very event that forced me into the realisation that I am in love with Daniel. For we nearly lost him to that self-same flood.

Need I go into detail about the run off gate we found and opened? I don’t think so. The physical evidence will be there for many years now, since I asked Giles to find some local builders who could recreate the first gate on a more modern foundation. And as soon as the river subsides, work will begin on that project, to the benefit of everyone involved.

Wolfbridge lands will not flood to any great extent, tenant cottages will be much safer, and the farmers of Holymere, who rely on their lake for irrigation, will benefit from the excess water of the Wolf River when that gate is raised to allow the swelled river another course. It was a challenging and frightening journey to reach this point, but Wolfbridge Manor lands are safer today than they were yesterday, and for that I think we can all be proud of what we’ve accomplished, even though my part in all of it was minor.

I have been Lady of Wolfbridge for going on half a year, amazing as it sounds.

Six months or a lifetime. Both might be true.

Many would say a short time, but