Pearl and Thorn: A Love Story

Doubt that the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
William Shakespeare

With the falling of the leaves again, a new life together
began for Margaret Saybrooke and Patrick Thornhart.

The Wheel Turns to Autumn

And now it is autumn, the waning of the calendar year. The last leaves drift down from the trees. Spirits that long to be free stir at the return of Samhain, the ancient Celtic celebration of the new year that honors the sun god Saman, also known as the Lord of Death. To the ancient Celts, November 1 was the beginning of the new year. But the earth has been awake since spring. 

The goddess over all waits patiently to tuck her rustling blanket of burnished golds and russets over the fading green forest and hills as soon as the fruits of the summer’s sowing have been gathered. In preparation, she begins to lengthen the time the earth spends in darkness.

Some mourn the coming of autumn and, seeing only with their human minds, look upon it as a time to grieve for the dead summer. But some see deeper using all their senses and emotions, and look upon autumn as a time of preparing for the long sleep of winter before the renewal yet to come in spring. 

Margaret wearing her namesake pearls,
a Saybrooke heirloom representing love's continuity, 
as she accepts Patrick's marriage proposal.

Without quietude the earth cannot ready itself to bloom forth again. All living creatures need rest during the cycle of a year in their lives. But life is unpredictable, too, and the most momentous events may happen when we are least prepare for them, even as we were expecting to find long-sought-for peace.

Margaret Turns to Patrick... 

Last autumn, Margaret was searching for that peace that had eluded, but her dreams were full of a force of nature whose call was irresistible. She found wild turmoil instead. The earth has made a full turn once more since Margaret heard Eire’s ancient song; try as hard as she might during that year, she cannot deafen herself to it. Will she heed the summons again?

The name Margaret means pearl and she had as many layers as her namesake when she first set foot on the Isle of Inish Crag in the Irish Sea… seas also being the home of pearls, she felt at peace there as she had never felt anyplace else on earth.

But as the autumn storms blew in from the sea, they tossed her way an Irishman named after the sting of heartbreak. Though the heartbreak was not meant for her... When he loved her at first sight and kissed her beneath the full moon, the waiting arms of the Sidhe reached out to their brother and bound him to her forever. Under the moon and above the restless old ones, they became joined together in an embrace as old as the sea and as enchanted as the Sidhe themselves.

Patrick and Margaret, thorn and pearl, poet and healer, reaping the harvest from sowing the seeds of love.

© K. A. Brand 2024. All rights reserved.