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takes my mind off things. Especially,” she said, leaning in and
kissing his nose, “of having to wait so long to see you again today.”
    They kissed, and
she turned with a giggle and linked arms with her sisters and cousins and was
soon bounding off to the fields with them, all of them giddy with happiness on
this spectacular summer day.
    Royce’s brothers
came up behind him, clasping his shoulders, and the four of them headed their
own way, down the other side of the hill.
    “Come on,
loverboy!” Raymond said. The eldest son, he was like a father to Royce. “You
can wait until tonight!”
    His two other brothers
laughed.
    “She’s really
got him good,” Lofen added, the middle of the bunch, shorter than the others
but more stocky.
    “There’s no hope
for you,” Garet chimed in. The youngest of the three, just a few years older
than Royce, he was closest to Royce, yet also felt their sibling rivalry the
most. “Not even married yet, and already he’s lost.”
    The three
laughed, teasing him, and Royce smiled with them as they all headed off, as
one, for the fields. He took one last glance over his shoulder and caught a glimpse
of Genevieve disappearing down the hill. His heart lifted as she, too, looked
back one last time and smiled at him from afar. The smile restored his soul.
    Tonight, my
love, he thought. Tonight.
     
    *
     
    Genevieve worked
the fields, raising and swinging her sickle, surrounded by her sisters and
cousins, a dozen of them, all laughing out loud on this auspicious day, as she
worked halfheartedly. Genevieve stopped every few hacks to lean on the long
shaft, look out at the blue skies and glorious yellow fields of wheat, and
think of Royce. As she did, her heart beat faster. Today was the day she had
always dreamt of, ever since she was a child. It was the most important day of
her life. After today she and Royce would live together for the rest of their
days; after this day, they would have their own cottage, a simple one-room
dwelling on the edge of the fields, a humble place bequeathed to them by their
parents. It would be a new beginning, a place to start life anew as husband and
wife.
    Genevieve beamed
at the thought. There was nothing she had ever wanted more than to be with
Royce. He had always been there, at her side, since she was a child, and she
had never had eyes for anyone else. Though he was the youngest of his four
brothers, she had always felt there was something special about Royce,
something different about him. He was different from everyone around her, from
anyone she had ever met. She did not know how, exactly, and she suspected that
he did not either. But she saw something in him, something bigger than this
village, this countryside. It was as if his destiny lay elsewhere.
    “And what of his
brothers?” asked a voice.
    Genevieve
snapped out of it. She turned to see Sheila, her eldest sister, giggling, two
of her cousins behind her.
    “After all, he
has three! You can’t have them all!” she added, laughing.
    “Yes, what are
you waiting for?” her cousin chimed in. “We’ve been waiting for an
introduction.”
    Genevieve
laughed.
    “I have introduced you,” she replied. “Many times.”
    “Not enough!”
Sheila answered as the others laughed.
    “After all,
should not your sister marry his brother?”
    Genevieve
smiled.
    “There is
nothing I would like more,” she replied. “But I cannot speak for them. I know
only Royce’s heart.”
    “Convince them!”
her other cousin urged.
    Genevieve laughed
again. “I shall do my best.”
    “And what will
you wear?” her cousin interjected. “You still haven’t decided which dress you
shall—”
    A noise suddenly
cut through the air, one which immediately filled Genevieve with a sense of
dread, made her let go of her sickle and turn to the horizon. She knew before
she even fully heard it that it was an ominous noise, the sound of trouble.
    She turned and
studied the horizon and as she did, her worst fears