SIX

HE HELPED her to get down the shaved log, and by the time she had her feet on the ground and had fixed her skirts, her face was aflame with embarrassment and deep shame. She remembered sounds she’d made she had never done before, and they were loud - the men in the cabin must have heard her. Adalene realized how ignorant she was for not learning more about this thing that eluded her in books her mother had stored in the house, those she was allowed to bring home after retiring from working as a handmaiden to an aristocratic woman.

“You’re so quiet, ma bichette,” the Baron observed after he, too, had straightened his clothes and recovered the leather bags from the rocky ground. “Is there something wrong?”

“I feel so inadequate, my Lord,” she replied upon when the Baron remained quiet, waiting for her answer.

He fully turned to her and frowned. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Inadequate of what?”

She couldn’t look at him. “I realized that... after everything I thought I know about the farm and helping out my family with work, I knew nothing.”

He was quiet for a moment, and then she felt him pulling her to him, and a palm cupped her face until she was looking up at him. His handsome face was contemplative as he gazed down at her. “What I can say, Adalene, is that you may not know much about what we just did, but you are not inadequate.”

She blinked against the unrelenting focus of his gaze. That was hard to beleive. Her younger cousins and friends knew more about what they just did that she. She barely knew anything.

“You don’t believe me?” A corner of his lips quirked up. “There was a reason your brothers and all the villagers in that chapelle created a ruckus upon realizing what kind of man you’re marrying. By this time your father would have become the joke of your village and your family would bemoan about the mistake he’s done with you until they die, or earlier if you become a widow, should your husband expire before everyone else.”

“My Lord!”

He shrugged his shoulders. “What I am saying is that hey all knew you deserve someone adequate for what you can provide as a wife, and that’s not just helping in the farm.”

She was silent for a moment, thinking. But she couldn’t separate what she felt from the logic of what he’d said. “May I be honest, my Lord?” she asked.

“Yes, you may,” he replied.

“No woman deserves to become the wife of that man.” There was a surprised laugh that came from him. But she continued out of desperation. “And I really hope my Mama has thought of a way to get me out of that proposition. Maybe there’s another way I can help my family without-” she choked and her hand covered her lips. “I’m sorry.” She bowed her head again. “I’ve said more than what’s proper.”

“What made you say it?” he asked softly.

She firmed her trembling lips. “I just... I don’t know how I could do it, have him touch me the way you...” She stopped, confused, because the Baron was as a stranger to her as Louis Didier. Logically, she shouldn’t have felt the familiarity she had felt when he kissed her. But it had not even been unpleasant.

Something moved at her periphery, and she turned her head. A knight was walking in the rocky pathway towards them and when he saw they were both looking, stopped. “My Lord, the food is ready. You and the lady can eat.”

The Baron nodded. “Thank you, Yves. We’ll be there.”

The man nodded and turned back towards the cabin.

The Baron offered his arm. “Will the lady accompany me back to the cabin? You must be hungry.”

Confused at the way he was treating her, she almost said she wasn’t hungry. But her stomach grumbled at that moment, and she realized her nervousness hadn’t affected her appetite. She placed her hand on his arm because he was expecting it.

And they walked towards the cabin without talking, comfortable in the silence as they both appeared to think...

“WE’RE going to be delayed,” the Baron told Adaline. She was awkward during the start of the meal because of the men, conscious again of the noise she must have made earlier that they must have heard, though no one was giving any indication of it. They were talking easily and dispensing jokes with each other, and at the Baron, and they were fast to eat. Pretty soon, some of them have left to scout the roads before they continue their ride to the baron’s home.

With nothing to do, she went back to the riverbank while she waited. She didn’t want to be on their way as they prepare to ride again, since she didn’t know how to help with anything. They were mostly handling their equipment. It was obvious this trip out to his estates hadn’t included riding back to the manor with a woman.

She was looking out to the water when she heard a sound, and when she looked back, it was the Baron walking to her, until he was standing near the log table where she had sat herself.

“No, you don’t have to move from there. It’s fine. We’ll wait for Yves and the others to come back, that’s all.” Then he leaned on the side of the log as he, too, looked out towards the water.

She did the same, but she was curious about something. She glanced at him, and his face was impassive, but sometimes he would frown and he would have this look like he was thinking of something that worried him. “My Lord, can I ask something?”

He nodded. “What is it?”

“I noticed you were all carrying knives and swords, aside from your arrows. Is there something wrong out there? Should we worry?” She was thinking about her family.

He thought for a moment, then replied. “There is nothing to worry about. Most of the farms are within the vicinity of the estates. But we were informed about robbers on the outskirts attacking some travelers going to the border to trade. It is my intention to make sure roads going through here will be safe for these travelers, as their wares bring in profits to the coffers. I’m also observing them. I have plans... of getting into this trading myself.”

“I heard they bring in good fabric from a far country in the East. Is that true?”

“And seeds, spices, pearls, tobacco and dried nuts for our wine. Yes.”

She was smiling. “I like to sew clothes,” she said before she could stop herself. And then felt conscious. “My mother said something about it a few months ago. She heard there were medicinal plants, too.”

For a few moments, they talked about the travelers and about trading ports she could only know from her mother’s books, and what he knew about what’s happening on the border. She realized he was seriously interested in participating in trading himself, not just about safeguarding the routes. That was interesting.

There was a lull in the conversation. Then he spun his face towards her, and it surprised her to find a look that she’d seen there earlier, when they were first there.

“I didn’t expect to be talking about the routes with you.”

“Because I’m a peasant’s daughter? Or because I’m a woman.”

“Admittedly, both. But not exactly. It’s a subject I can’t expect any other women to be interested in. Well. Expect my great-aunt.”

His great-aunt. She had heard a lot about her from her mother, mostly good and, many times, funny. That was the reason she smiled. But the next thing she knew, he had moved to bring himself up the log so he could sit beside her. And then he was cupping her face so she would turn to him.

“Kiss me,” he commanded.

She hesitated for a moment and it wasn’t because she didn’t want to, but because of the abruptness of it. She kissed him, was surprised for a moment how easy and familiar it was to do so, before his response eliminated all thoughts from her head. He kissed her as if he had been waiting to do so for a while, and most eagerly.

He raised his head after a long while, and his eyes were hooded, his cheeks flushed. He made a moaning sound as he lowered his forehead to hers, as if he wasn’t really sure what he was doing. They were breathless. Adaline waited for what he wanted.

“I am going to do something else... and you can lie down on the log.”

“Wha-What?” she asked, breathless and mindless. “My Lord,” she added.

“Trust me, ma bichette,” he said as he raised his face from hers.

She stared up at his handsome face. He looked very much like he wanted to continue. “I trust you, my Lord,” she replied, her heart hammering inside her chest. Were they going to do it? Here? Now? “You didn’t need to ask.”

He smiled gently.