ADALENE BELIEVED NOW.But watching the activity below, it was hard to believe she would marry in such grandeur. She never imagined this could happen in her life. Never.Her family was shell-shocked.They had arrived yesterday, the whole lot of them, and they huddled together almost most of the day, watching everything in a frozen state, not sure where they belonged until Odette had them busy with things they could help with.They were relieved to find they could easily converse with other workers in the manor, and that the Baron didn’t care for anything other than they settle in. Her little nieces and nephews were so in awe of the knights that they would either laugh or cry whenever one would actually talk to them, but they seemed to be thawing as the men made an effort to smile, talk and play with them when they could.Her mother had just left with Odette after helping her get ready and was somewhat calmer now. But yesterday, she was appalled to see the fresh scars that peaked from t

As soon as she entered the library and saw the additional books on the new floor-to-ceiling shelves installed yesterday, Adalene gasped in delight.“I got new books!” she exclaimed, to which her tutor reacted with a tsk-tsk. Fabian acquired a tutor to teach her the necessary Italian phrases in the language she needed for our travels. He would have wanted to get her another one for computing but she was already in good relations with his compter who helped her with understanding some accounts in books she found here. Besides, Adalene only needed to learn the numbers needed for accounts concerned with buying stock and inventory. The Baron—her husband’s people were very capable.But, anyway, the new hardbound books Fabian bought for her were the ones she had requested. She wanted a few books written in the Italian language so she could start reading them and understand more the context of what her tutor was teaching her. And for the next three hours, Adalene stayed in the library for her

As preparations continued for the next trip to the port of Rome, Adalene paid more focus on shooting her arrows more accurately and her knife-wielding skills. It did not lessen her efforts when Fabian welcomed the idea of hiring a small group of stragglers who looked like stragglers but had a reputation for being sound companions on the rough road toward Rome. They could go to places the knights couldn’t go to and get information that could help make travel less dangerous. In fact, this made her work harder. She knew she was the reason Fabian worried, but not one of his men who knew him would dare ask him to leave Adalene behind. They also never made her feel like she was an encumbrance and made a way out of their time to check on her progress and spar with her every day. Traders bring female members of the family to fairs and trade ports. The only difference to theirs was their trader was a baron, at the behest of the Duke of Burgundy, but only in whispers.There was one person who d

EARLY the next morning, Fabian and Adalene were loaded inside one of the carriages and they went their way to the cabin near her family. It took most of the day and it was almost dark when they arrived.Since her family had the cabin stocked with food and whatever else they needed to stay there for a week, they started right away with cooking dinner.Someone, probably one of her brothers, left fire and wood in the fireplace that might have been alight the whole day, and though there were only embers when they arrived, the inside was comfortably warm. Fabian added more wood and it was crisply hot when they sat down to eat that they stripped down to slips and undergarments.“You can cook!” Fabian said happily as he got his second filling of the beef stew.Adalene shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s my mother’s cooking. She left it in a big pot for me to heat up when we arrived. I can cook, but I haven’t done much for a long time… since I arrived in the manor, practically, so I am not sur