They retraced their steps along the path they had beaten earlier through the ferns and nettles. The storm had made the ground underneath treacherous, so for all their anxiety to put the villa behind them, they proceeded at a careful pace. When they finally reached the sunken lane, the rain still had not ceased, and they took shelter under the first large tree they could find.
"Are you soaked through, princess?"
"Don't worry, Axl. The coat did its work. How is it with you?"
"Nothing the sun won't soon dry when it returns."
They put down their bundles and leant against the trunk, recovering their breath. After a while, Beatrice said quickly:
"Axl, I feel afraid."
"Why, what is it, princess? What harm can come to you now?"
"Do you remember the strange woman in dark rags you watched me talking to up by the old thorn that day? She may have looked a mad wanderer, but the story she told had much in common with the old woman's just now. Her husband too had been taken by a boatman and she left behind on the shore. And when she was coming back from the cove, weeping for loneliness, she found herself crossing the edge of a high valley, and she could see the path a long way before and a long way behind, and all along it people weeping just like her. When I heard this I was only partly afraid, saying myself it was nothing to do with us, Axl. But she went on speaking, about how this land had become cursed with a mist of forgetfulness, a thing we've remarked on often enough ourselves. And then she asked me: 'How will you and your husband prove your love for each other when you can't remember the past you've shared?' And I've been thinking about it ever since. Sometimes I think about it and it makes me so afraid."
"But what's to fear, princess? We've no plans to go to any such island or any desire to do so."
"Even so, Axl. What if our love withers before we've a chance even to think of going to such a place?"
"What are you saying, princess? How can our love wither? Isn't it stronger now than when we were foolish young lovers?"
"But Axl, we can't even remember those days. Or any of the years between. We don't remember our fierce quarrels or the small moments we enjoyed and treasured. We don't remember our son or why he's away from us."
"We can make all those memories come back, princess. Besides, the feeling in my heart for you will be there just the same, no matter what I remember or forget. Don't you feel the same, princess?"
"I do, Axl. But then again I wonder if what we feel in our hearts today isn't like these raindrops still falling on us from these soaked leaves above, even though the sky itself long stopped raining. I'm wondering if without our memories, there's nothing for it but our love to fade and die."
"God wouldn't allow such a thing, princess." Axl said this quietly, almost under his breath, for he had himself felt an unnamed fear welling up within him.