“How old is this one?” she asked, drawing her raincoat around her neck. The winds were strong enough to make the gray-blue water choppy.

Aiden looked up at her while wrapping a long length of rope around his elbow and hand. “Oh, she’s only twenty years old. I brought her up from Galway a few years back so I could boat around the harbor.”

Her brows knotted as she gazed upon the expansive harbor. Tall cliffs surrounded them, but out west lay the open ocean. Seagulls screeched overhead, warning her to turn back to the car and stay where it was safe. “We’re not going too far, are we?” she asked. “Can we stay in the harbor?”

Aiden extended his hand, his eyes warm and understanding. “We don’t have to go out there,” he said. “If we go too far, we might hit Boston.”

Antonia took his hand and carefully stepped into the currach. They stood in the middle, she still clung to him with a death-grip. “I love the water,” she said, looking around her for somewhere to sit. “I swear I do, I just don’t have a lot of experience being in it.”

Aiden, who looked like he belonged out on the water in his cream Aran sweater, smiled. “Oh I think you might have a little selkie in you yet.”

“What’s a selkie?” she asked, taking a seat.

“Here,” he said, pulling her up again. “You should sit by the bow, so I can operate the engine.”

Antonia slowly moved around his body, gripping his shoulders as she went. Her movements were unsteady and wobbly, as if at any moment, she’d be pitched overboard. “Good idea,” she murmured as she watched her footing. “Are there any life jackets?” she asked.

“Under your seat.” He gestured behind her. “Slip it over your head and tighten the latches on your chest.”

She did exactly as she was told and sat firmly on the bench closest to the front of the boat. “What’s a selkie?” she asked again; anything to take her mind off the lapping water that rocked them.

Aiden unhooked them from the float dock. “They’re like mermaids, but seals,” he said with a grunt as he pushed them away from their last chance of safety. “Fishermen fall in love with these seal maidens and steal their coats. Once he’s hidden her coat, she must stay with him as a woman and wife. But really, she longs for the sea.”

Antonia was breathless. “I’ve never heard of that,” she said.

Aiden looked out at the horizon behind her as he stuck his oars out. “I think it might be a Scottish tale. The point is, you can’t let the selkie find her coat.”

“What happens?”

He pulled the oars, propelling them forward. “If she does, she’ll leave everything behind and return to the water.”

Antonia paused and thought about the folklore. Perhaps she did have a little selkie in her. “It’s beautiful out here,” she said as she watched the rocky shoreline float away.