Kate awakens suddenly in the middle of the night. She can feel a thin trickle of sweat creeping across her temple, and beneath her nightshirt her heart is pounding.
'Dream of me'
Doc is fast asleep behind her, his arms wrapped around her middle securely. But she barely even feels him there. She's lost in a dreamlike state, her mind clouded as if by a dark pall. The fine hairs on her arms and at the back of her neck are on end, and, though she's not sure why, she feels the urge to get up.
Doc stirs and mumbles in his sleep, and she hushes him, saying she just remembered leaving a gate unlocked in the stables.
"Leave't fer th'morn'n," he mumbles, reaching for her.
"I'll only be gone a moment," she whispers, kissing his forehead and brushing her fingers through his hair. He's already half-asleep, and she uses that to her advantage, coaxing him back into restfulness with just the right touch and a quiet, hummed song.
Dream of me.
She pulls on clothes -- her boots, and a blouse, and a long, flowing skirt that cinches at her waist -- and gathers her hair back into a braid, before stepping out of the room and down the stairs, feet quick with a strange tremble of excitement that runs through her blood. She's not even sure where she's going until she has her coat on and the backdoor open, and soon she's on the dark path outside, blinking at her surroundings.
.
It's dark by the time Kate finishes with her evening chores in the stables. The 'time of year' -- or however time works here -- plus a cloud cover that threatens snow above, nudges the darkness deeper despite the fairly early hour.
She coos her goodbyes to Beaut, and then leaves the stables, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her long coat and hunkering against the cold. She makes her way up along the path, boots crunching in uncovered gravel and days-old snow.
The atmosphere tonight strikes her as strange, and frankly she's just ready to get back inside where it's light and warm and crowded.
.
She coos her goodbyes to Beaut, and then leaves the stables, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her long coat and hunkering against the cold. She makes her way up along the path, boots crunching in uncovered gravel and days-old snow.
The atmosphere tonight strikes her as strange, and frankly she's just ready to get back inside where it's light and warm and crowded.
.