The tea, along with the warm fire and the general calm in the cottage, had done wonders to revive me body and spirit. However, I was alarmed to see that the fire and the quilts our new friend was packed snugly in seemed to be having the opposite effect on him. If a man could wilt, he was doing so right there in the rocking chair.

His breathing was laboured, his forehead was wet with perspiration, his lips were curled in a grimace, and his eyes were drooping shut. I prayed to God it was the heat he was reacting to and that he was not actually succumbing to his injuries right before our very eyes.

With an exclamation I rose to me feet, which got aunt Janna's attention right away.

She'd been in the sitting room, at the front windows, watching the yard for Emmi's return.

"What is it?" she called with concern from the other room.

"I think our guest is too hot Aunt. I'm going to remove him from the fire," I called back to her as I took hold of the back of the rocking chair, tipped it ever so slightly backwards and then drug the chair a few inches from the hearth.

I repeated the action several times until bit by bit I was able to maneuver our guest out of the direct heat of the fire's flames. Afterwards, I came around and loosened the patchwork quilt from around his shoulders to allow for a little cool air to reach his neck and chest.

The cooler air appeared to revive him almost instantly. I watched with anxious delight as his eyes fluttered open and he looked me squarely in the face. What a relief it was to see his senses return to him.

Jaana was suddenly at my side and handing me a cup of cold water. "Let him drink something cool," she said as she also leaned in toward him and further loosened up the quilts about him.

I was in the midst of handing him the cool cup of water, which he was reaching for with his still oddly blue-tinged hands, when the door to the house burst open and aunt Emmi came flying in. We three, the guest, Aunt Jaana and myself, all turned to watch Emmi glide into the room with more grace than any woman her age was likely to execute. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"How is our patient?" she asked happily.

Aunt Jaana and I both looked beyond Emmi for the doctor but he was not there.

"Where is the doctor, Emmi?" Aunt Jaana asked as she walked across the room to greet Emmi.

I never heard her reply because my attention was drawn back to our guest when his surprisingly arctic fingers wrapped around mine, which still held the cup half in front of him. He brought my hands, along with the cup, to his lips and I watched him drink up. His frigid fingers gave me a shock and as soon as he'd finished with the cup I set it aside and took up his left hand in both of mine, rubbing it gently in the hope of bringing some warmth to it.

"I don't understand," I confessed worriedly to the aunts as they came over to us. "The fire is too hot for him, yet his hands are as cold as the sea in winter."

I set down his left hand folding it under the quilt, and then took up his right, which I gently tried to rub some heat into while I threw a questioning look at the aunts. His palms were smooth and much too soft to be those of seafaring man. They reminded me of my father's long, elegant hands, which had never seen a day's hard labour in his life.

My right hand was unexpectedly seized by our guest. He grasped my fingers together in his while he pressed his thumb into my palm. Immediately I froze and very slowly turned my face back to look at him. His grip was firm but not aggressive, and his touch, though unsettling because it was oddly intimate, was gentle.

I remained still as a statue and felt my breath catch in my chest as I stared wide-eyed at his icy thumb. It made small circular movements on my palm. Movements that were slow, methodical and caused me all sorts of peculiar sensations that might have been pleasant if I wasn't so startled by the unanticipated contact.

I knew I should pull my hand free. If he had been any other man I would never have let him take such liberties. But, as I brought my eyes up to his gaze, I found myself transfixed by the intensity I saw there. A niggling feeling in the recesses of my mind told me he was trying to speak to me - to say something with his eyes. I didn't have the heart to pull away from his hand or his eyes just then. Some part of me yearned to know what his eyes wanted to speak.

In the next instant, my ears filled with the sound of crashing waves and the room grew so bright I had to shield my eyes from the light momentarily. When next I opened them I found myself standing next to the sea and being battered by a wet, salty breeze. It was refreshing. And standing there felt entirely natural.

I closed my eyes, turned my face to the sun and took in a deep breath. But something compelled me to open them again. As I did I beheld the stranger standing directly in front of me, waist deep in the ocean tide. He was smiling with his eyes and beckoning me to come in. I smiled at him in return.

I was glad. I wanted to follow him. I took a breath and a single step toward him but in that same moment I heard my aunts call my name. They sounded far away. I turned my head to look back at the shoreline from where their voices hailed, but, the instant I did, I found myself standing in the kitchen of my aunts' home.

It was a great shock to me, and I felt infinitely confused and bewildered. The scene a moment ago was so real to me that I would have sworn on the holy book that I was standing on the beach. How had I come to be in the aunts' kitchen in the blink of an eye? And, why did I long to go back as if prematurely woken from a beautiful dream. My heart felt sick. My mind was all muddled. Why couldn't I remember?

Aunt Emmi and Janna were clutching my arms and shaking me as they said in unison, "Marketta, Marketta, can you hear us? Marketta?"

I blinked several times and each time I did the memory of the previous moment by the sea became foggier and foggier until I could remember it no more. I looked about the room in a daze. Then a dizzy spell set in.

"I think I must sit down aunts," I said mechanically.

The dear souls rushed me to a kitchen chair and I sank into it gratefully. Aunt Emmi brought me a cup of cool water and the moment she placed it in my hand I remembered something. I remembered the stranger, the danger on the rocks, the journey back to the cottage, and his icy cold hands. I looked up and there he was, bundled up in the rocking chair and observing me with his coal black eyes. How had I forgotten all of this? I was dumbfounded at my lapse in memory and did not feel quite myself in that moment.

As I returned his stare, I had the strangest feeling I was forgetting something else though. Something about him. But, no matter how long I looked at him or around the cozy little kitchen, I could not bring it to mind.

"You must eat," Aunt Jaana declared all of a sudden. "You are faint from your exertions I suspect. Some soup will bring you back to your senses, child."

Not wanting to worry them and unsure if I should be worried myself, I smiled softly at the both of them and submitted to their ministrations. Jaana had leek and potato soup warming in the pot by the hearth. So, she wasted no time dishing out a bowl for me and for the stranger too. The warm bowl felt marvelous in my hands and the moment I took a whiff of the soup my stomach growled in the most unladylike fashion. This caused the aunts to laugh gaily and to smile reassuringly at each other.

"You were right Jaana," Aunt Emmi said. "She just needs to eat. Poor girl." Emmi then buttered me a freshly baked roll and placed it on the table beside me.

I did not wait on ceremony. Instead, I dug right in. The soup warmed me up and the roll satisfied the noisy gurgling of my restless stomach. I hadn't realized how famished I was until I reached the bottom of the bowl.

Instead of asking for a second helping, etiquette had me pouring myself a second cup of tea. Normally, I would not have hesitated if it were just I and the aunts. However, the presence of our rather peculiar guest acted as a restraint on me. I wasn't sure my stomach was going to thank me in the evening hours though.

I turned my attention back to the stranger who was attempting to get down Jaana's soup. She was a wonderful cook and so, I decided that he either had something against potato and leek soup or that the taste was simply too foreign to his palette to be palpable. He was trying to make an effort though and I admired his manners.

Walking over to him, I graciously put out my hand for the bowl. "You needn't finish it, if it isn't to your liking," I told him with a sympathetic smile.

He looked at the bowl one more time before quietly handing it over to me. Despite not having heard a word out of him yet, it did appear that he had some understanding of English. I gave him a radiant smile.

Quietly setting the bowl aside I looked around the kitchen and wondered what we might feed him besides buttered rolls. In the end I settled on rolls with spiced jam. We were all pleased to see him devour them.

We must have put in an hour or more at the cottage now and the doctor still had yet to arrive. I worried for the guest's leg. Despite his appetite, which was a good sign, his face was often contorted with pain. He was certainly in need of the doctor's expertise.

"When will the doctor come aunt Emmi?" I asked her quietly as I followed her down the hall to Jaana's room, which she was currently fixing up for the stranger. Together we stripped the bed and put on new sheets for the gentleman.

I absently wondered if the presence of the strange man in their house was not too much of a burden on them. His staying would certainly disrupt their routine. And, perhaps the novelty of saving a man from the sea would ware off when the reality of having a stranger in their midst sunk in.

"Do you want me to get Father?" I asked Emmi as we quietly gathered up the bed linens and brought them to the mud room where they would wait in a basket with other soiled items to be washed on a warm morning. If not warm, then at least a dry morning.

I suspected that if they were nervous of the stranger, having father with them would put their minds at ease. And he would most certainly be willing to stay the night if they insisted. He did love his two maiden aunts dearly. Everyone did.

"No, no," Emmi said right away. "We don't need to bother your father. But perhaps you will stay?" she asked sweetly.

"I'll have to go home and ask Father and Mother," I said thoughtfully. The idea of sleeping over and helping out with the stranger was equal parts exciting and romantic. I wasn't sure my father would approve though. "They may not let me stay," I mused aloud. "Still," I said with confidence, "I could not imagine them refusing outright."

"That's the spirit," Emmi replied as she grinned at me mischievously. I readily returned the same smile.

"Go now and hurry back," Emmi said eagerly.

I gave her a nod and retrieved my cloak from the peg on the chimney. With my cloak clasped around my neck again, I bid farewell to aunt Jaana and to the stranger. Jaana smiled at me and gave me a little wink. The stranger frowned at the news. He didn't look pleased, but then I couldn't be sure he even understood me properly.

"I'll be back as soon as I can mange it," I said to everyone while I looked straight into his dark eyes. I wasn't certain but I thought he gave me a slight nod. It made me smile.

With that all settled I let myself out of the house and took off at a run. I wanted to get home right away in the hopes I could return, and return before the doctor did. I didn't want to miss the doctor for all the world. After all, he was the most eligible bachelor in the whole county and had a face as pleasant as his bedside manner.