A Lady's Guide to Courtship

XXI. The First Sight

He groaned in embarrassment.

"Bloody shameful, eh?" she could not help but say, laughing at her own wit.

"What are you doing?" he weakly asked her as she kneeled on the floor and carefully began to fold his tattered trouser over to his calf.

"Doing my bloody best to clean the wounds, my lord," she murmured, sputtering with mirth at the word bloody.

"You are mocking me," he accused.

She looked up to offer him a satisfied smile, her eyes glinting with laughter. "Yes, I think I bloody am, my lord."

His eyes narrowed and she had the sudden urge to reach up to brush his wet blonde locks away from his face. They had darkened to nearly brown. But she did not do that, reminding herself that she would merely potentially scare him away. Instead, she focused on cleaning his wound, wiping away the blood and dirt. He remained quiet, but the bunching of his muscles told her he was in pain.

As she finished, she wondered why he never told Lady Weis about this fear of blood. Mayhap there were things she did not know about him after all, things she was yet to discover.

Ysabella was not certain if she ought to feel excited or disappointed. She had thought she knew him well enough, but it did not seem so.

What could have caused him to have this sort of fear? She wanted to know the story behind it.

"It is raining," he commented as she finished her task, wrapping another clean cloth around the cuts. He should be fine. The bleeding had stopped and as she had first thought, they could merely be considered scratches. He should be leaping on the same leg after a day or so.

"I would have enjoyed the rain if I was not dragging you here," she murmured, standing up.

He looked up at her from the bed. "Thank you."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. Turning away from him, she walked to the window to look outside. Tiny streams of water were running through the grassy land and into the crops. "Levi once made Tori, his wife, an artificial rain," she said, pulling at the blanket around her. "He punched tiny holes into the bottom of bins, hung them over the tree and connected tubes over them to supply them with water."

He was silent for a while that she thought he decided to not comment until he said, "I never knew my friend had such a streak of romance."

Ysabella looked over her shoulder to grin at him. "Love, I think, moves one to do foolish, romantic things."

He stared at her, his eyes gentle and bluer than the last time. He looked pale still, but colour was slowly returning to his cheeks.

Turning away to face the window again, she contented herself with but the mere sound of rain outside and the sight of water rushing toward the corns. Sunlight was starting to shine down once more. The rain might stop soon.

"What made you decide to do it?"

She turned away from the window to face him from across the room. "Do what?"

He shrugged. "What made you decide to pursue me? It had always been a baffling matter for me."

The smile on her lips faded as one corner lifted into a wicked grin. "You have always thought I was merely playing games. Why can it not be the only reason?" When he frowned, she laughed. "I have always known you existed, my lord. I've seen you in many balls and heard my brothers talk about you in passing. I never thought you were that great until I talked to you."

"Talked to me?"

She nodded. "Do you remember when I tried to stop you at the Walkelin ball when you tried to go after Tori?"