Juniper and Miss Titan visited Leo each day to check in on his father. They held Hephaestus's hands while the doctor bled him and helped Leo spoon-feed him his medicinal tea. Under their gentle care, Hephaestus slowly began to recover. He could sit up in his bed and feed himself broth and porridge after about a week.
"Who's that pretty young lady?" Hephaestus said as he lay down to take his afternoon nap.
Leo picked up his spoon and porridge bowl.
"Surely, you remember Juniper, Pa?" he replied.
Juniper sat by the bed, knitting a pair of mittens to give to her husband as a Christmas present.
"No, the other one, who was here last night."
"Oh. That's Miss Titan of Ogygia Hall in Spanish Town, Jamaica. She's staying at Skye Castle."
"Since when did you have such hoity-toity friends?"
"Your son's moving up in the world."
Hephaestus stretched out, rested his head on the pillow, and quickly began to snore. Leo walked over to the window. Farmer Underwood was stacking firewood inside of a lean-to. He put down the bundle of logs he held in his arms and tipped his hat to Leo.
Mrs. Europa's herd of Welsh Black cows grazed in a nearby meadow. The heifers were pregnant. Their bellies looked swollen, and their udders sagged low to the ground.
The sky was a bleak, charcoal grey. The wind shook bare tree branches so that they looked like the waving arms of m.p.s during a particularly heated secession of parliament. Leo's breath clouded the windowpane.
"There's a storm coming on, " he said to Juniper.
"Is that Miss Titan coming down the road?" Juniper replied.
Leo recognized Miss Titan's indigo colored cloak and bronze bonnet. Her cheeks were flushed and red from the cold, making her look like a doll.
"I wonder what she's doing out on a day like this?"
Miss Titan knocked on the front door, and Leo went to open it for her.
"How is he today?" She said as she removed her bonnet.
"So far, it's been a good day, " Leo replied, taking her cloak. "He just settled down for a nap."
She looked over towards the bed, where Hephaestus's bulk lay snoring.
"He's looking well. His color is returning."
Hephaestus was a big, robust man with the constitution of an ox, but such a quick recovery was astonishing even for him.
"He has a good angel looking after him."
Miss Titan's cheeks flushed even redder.
"And what about you? Have you been taking care of yourself?"
She could tell from his wan complexion and drooping eyes that he had not.
"I have to get back to work. There's an order for a dozen toasting forks I have to finish by tomorrow."
Leo brushed past her and returned to his forge. Miss Titan smiled back at him as he passed through the sliding door, which separated the forge from the main house.
"I'll leave the door partially open in case I need to call for you," she said.
Over the clanging of his hammer, Leo could hear the tea kettle boil on the stove and Miss Titan chat with Juniper.
"The poor boy looks even worse than his father," He overheard Miss Titan saying.
"Not surprising," Juniper replied. "When he has to look after and careful his sick old man on top of earning a living."
Leo admitted that he looked a bit tired and ragged. Dark shadowed dusted his pale cheeks and encircled his strained-looking eyes. He had neglected to shave since his father fell ill and only managed to run a cursory comb through his hair once a day and pull it back into a messy queue. His days in the forge began earlier and ended later so he could make the extra money necessary to pay for his father's medical treatment. Whatever free him he had, he spent taking care of his father. Hours of sleep or relaxation were few.
"But still, " Miss Titan continued. "It lends a romantic charm to his face. He is slightly rakish looking, with his wild burnt-umber hair and mischievous burnt-umber eyes."
Leo almost smashed his fingers with his hammer when he heard that Miss Titan found him romantic and rakish looking. He felt as though his heart had flown out of his rib cage.
Juniper giggled. Leo imagined her playfully nudging Miss Titan with a knowing grin on her face.
"Leo's a fine lad, " she said. "But I wouldn't get too involved with somebody like him. A genteel young lady like yourself could do a lot better."
"I'm not so hoity-toity as that, Mrs. Underwood."
Farmer Underwood joined the four of them for supper later that evening. Miss Titan and Leo spent the afternoon preparing a dish of roast pork and apples.
They used the pork bones to make a broth for Hephaestus.
"Supper's ready, " Miss Titan said when she brought a bowl of broth over to him.
"Thank you, Miss, " Hephaestus replied. He took the bowl from her and winked.
"You're so good with him, " Leo said when she returned to the table.
"He's a darling man, " Miss Titan looked at Hephaestus, slurping down his broth with an indulgent smile.
"No one could ask for a better father."
Rain pattered on the roof and windowpanes. The wind wailed through the trees like a banshee. Thunder rumbled through the clouds. A fire crackled in the hearth and filled the house with cozy warmth. Leo felt grateful that he was inside.
"I guess we better get going," Farmer Underwood said after supper finished. He wrapped Juniper's cloak around her shoulders.
"Goodnight, Leo," Juniper added. She raised her hood and followed Farmer Underwood out into the storm. Luckily, they only had a short walk home.
Miss Titan rose from her seat.
"I should be leaving as well, " she said.
"Are they sending a carriage for you from the Castle?" Leo replied.
"No. I didn't think I would stay this late. I'd planned on leaving before the weather got too bad."
"You'll get soaked to the skin and catch your death if you go out there. Why don't you stay the night?"
"The Duke and Duchess will be worried about me."
"They know you're here, and you can explain everything tomorrow. I'm sure they'll understand."
She looked around the room at Hephaestus's bed in one corner and Leo's bed in another.
"Where would I sleep?"
"There's a cot in my forge. I'll sleep there, and you can sleep in my bed."
"Oh no, I couldn't force you out of your bed. I'll sleep on the cot."
"I insist. What sort of a gentleman and host would I be if I didn't put your comfort before my own."
"If you insist."
She put another kettle on the fire to make tea, and he prepared a pipe of tobacco for himself.
Hephaestus put his bowl on the floor and rolled over in his bed. After a few minutes, he was snoring and dead to the world.
"I overheard you and Juniper talking about..." Leo said. He lit his pipe and breathed in a lung-full of tobacco. "How did you put it... My burnt-umber hair and burnt-umber eyes."
Miss Titan lowered her eyes and turned away from him.
"My father always said that we have the selkie look."
"What's the selkie look?"
"A selkie is a creature that spends most of its life as a seal, living on the coasts of Ireland and Scotland. At certain times of the year, they can shed their seal skin and appear as a human. They are beautiful with dark hair and dark eyes. If you find a selkie's skin, they have to marry you- Selkie women make the best wives, they say. My father came from Ireland, and he says we have a selkie somewhere in our family history."
A/N legends involving selkies typically involve a young man finding a selkie girl's sealskin and hiding it, so she has to marry him. Several years later, she finds the sealskin and discovers his trick. She returns to the sea, leaving him behind with the children. Irish people with dark hair/eyes, your Aiden Turner/Hozier type, are said to be descended from selkies.
Miss Titan's eyelids grew heavy, and she let out an unladylike yawn.
"Excuse me, " she said. "That was a lovely story, but it left me wondering if selkie men as good husbands as selkie women make good wives."
Leo's cot unfolded out of a chest. It consisted of a thin mattress over a thick piece of wood. Leo had to duck under a low canopy to be into bed.
He tossed and turned for what seemed like an eternity, trying to fall asleep. The bed was cramped and uncomfortable. Even his thickest quilt could not keep out the draft which crept in through the forge's thin walls. Eventually, he did grow drowsy.
A figure in a white chemise walked into the forge and climbed into the cot. Leo sat up and rubbed his eyes.
Miss Titan was sitting beside him. He opened his mouth to ask her what the deuce she was doing there when she leaned in closer to him.
"Leo," she said. She touched her lips to his and pulled at the collar of his night shirt. "Leo."