The surprise waited at the edge of the little lake beyond the vineyard, where the ancient willows dipped their trailing branches into the dark water like fingers testing the temperature. The lake was barely more than a pond really, fed by an underground spring that kept it clear and cool even in the height of summer, surrounded by cattails and wild irises that bloomed purple in the early months of the year.
Regan had been sneaking off for weeks now, disappearing after morning chores with increasingly creative excuses that had started to make her suspicious despite her efforts to respect his obvious need for secrecy. He would claim he needed to run errands in town, or that there were tools at the neighbor's farm that required his particular brand of mending, or that he'd heard about a piec
