To the right was a large door that led out to the workshop, where Kiara could hear Nate or Mr. Forger hammering metal. She couldn’t find Owen anywhere, so she assumed he was in with the other men.
Kiara sighed and made her way towards the cows. From far away, they never looked all that big, but once she was up close, she was afraid one would squish her against the stall walls. Luckily, they didn’t seem to care about her presence in the slightest. Instead, they just continued to go about their business, chewing their cud. Kiara cleared her throat and tried to remember how she saw one of her father’s servants do this.
She set a little stool down next to the cow’s udder and took a seat, observing the oddly shaped body part. She placed one of the pails under the animal and sat back, thinking of what to do next. She sure wished someone had come to help her.
In an act of faith, Kiara reached out and grabbed the nipples of the udder. And as soon as she did, the cow let out a tremendous bellowing noise. Kiara shrieked and withdrew her hands without a second thought, shrinking back in hopes that she would escape any aggression the animal might show. The cow didn’t move anything but her head and neck in protest and to shift her stance a bit, but nothing else. The twins snickered off from behind Kiara.
Had she done something wrong? That’s what the servant did and the cows back home never mooed like that before. And if they had, she would have surely heard it from her bedchambers or the library.
Once the cow settled down, Kiara relaxed on her stool and tried to think of what she was missing.
Nate stepped out from behind the workshop door and walked over to her with an amused smile across his face.
“Having trouble?” he asked.
Kiara looked up in surprise and suddenly began to tremble. She nodded and motioned towards the cow’s udder.
“You have to warm your hands first… Like this.” Nate rubbed his hands together quickly and squatted down next to Kiara. He breathed hot air into his palms, then took a gentle hold over the nipples, pulling in an alternating pattern. And sure enough, fresh milk squirted out into the pail without the cow becoming agitated.
All the while Nate was demonstrating, Kiara couldn’t concentrate on what he was doing. All she could do was stare at him with love-struck eyes and admire how handsome he looked. He seemed so at ease around this family. It was odd, yet interesting. He would act all tough around other people, yet around her and the Forgers, he was himself.
“Here, you try,” he offered, sitting back on his heels. Nate looked up to Kiara and she felt like she was caught red-handed, so she quickly looked away and realized she had missed the whole lesson.
“Uh… How do I warm my hands again?” she asked stupidly.
Nate smirked, took her hands in his, and forced her to rub them together as he did. Kiara felt like her heart had stopped. She could hardly breathe. Their hands were touching again. And if that wasn’t enough, when he was finished rubbing her hands for her, he brought her palms up to his mouth and breathed into them. She felt her heart flutter in her chest and stomach tighten.
Then, Nate stretched out his hands that still held Kiara’s and made her wrap her fingers around the nipples, and together, they milked the cow. Kiara felt like she would faint. She couldn’t imagine a more romantic situation than this. If she didn’t have any sense of self control, she would have whipped out her hands from his, wrapped her arms around his neck and…
“Nate! Get back in here, I need you to help me with this harness!” Mr. Forger called out from inside the work shop. Nate looked up to the workshop doors, then without another word, he stood up to walk back in to help the older man. But not before taking one last glance to Kiara with a reassuring grin.
She smiled back and continued milking the cow, savoring Nate’s touch on her skin and the hot breath he gave her. She knew she was being a bit exaggerated, but she was in love, whether it was right or wrong.
Nate walked back into the workshop, taking deep slow breaths to calm his own throbbing heart. He looked back up to Mr. Forger who was carefully watching a piece of red-hot steel in the coals of the forge. Owen was just coming in from outside, toting a bundle of fire wood. Nate hoped that none of them could see his reddened cheeks.
“So, what was wrong with the cow?” Mr. Forger asked without taking his eyes off of the metal.
“Ki… Kyra was milking her the wrong way, that’s all,” Nate replied, walking over to take up his tongs that he had set down before leaving the workshop.
“Kyra’s in there?” Owen asked eagerly, throwing the wood into a little furnace and bounding towards the workshop doors. Without even looking up, Mr. Forger grabbed his son by the collar as the boy was walking by and swung him in the other direction.
“Oh, no you don’t, son. Go get more coals for this forge… Now!” he barked, pointing a finger towards another pair of open doors of the workshop that lead to the field.
Owen groaned and stomped towards the doors in irritation. Once the boy left the shop, Mr. Forger noticed that Nate was leaning over pretty far to take a peek through the barn doors. The old farmer smiled and shuffled the metal under some hot coals, knowing exactly who Nate was trying to look at.
“Owen seems to have taken a liking to Kyra, huh?” Mr. Forger commented, shifting the metal and coals around.
“… Huh?… Oh, yeah, I guess…” Nate shook his head sharply to get a certain idea out of his mind, then walked steadily back towards the anvil. Mr. Forger took the piece of steel out from the heat and brought it over to the anvil with his hammer, ready to pound it into shape. Nate was in charge of holding the metal with his own set of tongs so that the tiny piece wouldn’t move under the impact of the hammer.
As Mr. Forger was slugging away at the anvil, Nate kept letting his eyes wander back over to the barn doors as if he were waiting for someone to walk through or something to happen. The farmer saw this and had to clear his throat a few times to get the boy’s attention again.
Nate couldn’t help it. His mind was on other things rather than blacksmithing. He sighed with malcontent and tried to stay focused on the task at hand. But, Mr. Forger was far too amused with the situation to let Nate concentrate.
“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” Mr. Forger said lightly, still pounding on the metal, trying to reshape it the way he needed it to be.
“… Hmm? Who?” Nate asked, looking up to the man with a confused look as if he had no idea what they were talking about.
“You know who… Kyra... She’s pretty, isn’t she?” Mr. Forger let a sly grin roll over his lips as he glanced up to Nate.
“Oh, her?… Nah, not really.”
But, after saying that, his eyes were once again, fixed on those barn doors, wishing he could have seen Kiara from where he was standing. In between each hammer stroke, he could just barely hear the milk being squirted into the pails. He listened for it eagerly each time, knowing that it meant Kiara was still in the next room.
“Yeah… Sure she isn’t. I mean, look at those ugly eyes. You see prettier eyes on a mule than what she’s got lodged in her head,” Mr. Forger said, snatching the metal out from the loose grip of Nate’s tongs and sticking it back into the hot coals.
“Hey, don’t you be talking like that about her eyes!” Nate contended, looking at the man very threateningly, ready to jab those tongs right into Mr. Forger’s belly, “She’s got beautiful eyes…” he ended softly, then turned his attention back towards the doors when he heard some hay rustling.
“Alright, alright. So, she’s got beautiful emeralds in those eye sockets… But, look at her hair, boy! It’s so oily and frizzy. It’s a mess!”
“No… Her hair is soft, light… and perfect. She has beautiful hair, too,” Nate replied in an airy tone, as if he was daydreaming about running his hands through the very ebony-colored hair he was talking about.
“Mmhmm… Ok, she’s got nice hair too. But, come on, she’s as fat as the cow she’s milking!” Mr. Forger knew he must have been pushing Nate’s button
s, but it was all for a purpose. He wanted Nate to say what he really meant. Mr. Forger had been watching the two since that morning and there was no way that Nate had no feelings for this girl.
“Are you blind, Forger?” Nate retorted, looking at the farmer in disbelief. “She’s so skinny, I could probably wrap my hands right around her waist and be able to touch my finger tips! She’s got the perfect figure.” He held up his hands like he was going to grab her waist right then.
He sighed again, let his hands drop and hung his head ruefully. Mr. Forger set his pair of tongs down on the edge of the forge, walked over and patted Nate on the back comfortingly.
“It’s ok, Nathan. I won’t tell her,” he said playfully. The youth looked up to the barn doors and ran his dirty fingers through his hair.
“She’s driving me nuts,” Nate began to admit. “She’s so annoying at times, but at other times, she’s just too beautiful to be real. She talks way too much, but I love to hear what she’s saying. Her voice is… Well, you’ve heard her talk. She has this way of captivating me with her words, even when I don’t want to listen. She’s such a wimp, but at the same time, she can be so strong.”
Nate turned to the farmer and motioned towards the door. “That woman doesn’t give herself enough credit. When those bandits had me surrounded, she was picking off most of them with a bow. In the Field of Fire, she pushed me out of the way of a geyser and caught herself on fire in the process. She’s the only reason I’m standing here today.” Nate could hardly believe all the things he was saying. He stepped away from the farmer and rubbed his face in agitation, confused beyond all reason.
Mr. Forger only grinned, folded his arms and leaned against the anvil. “Well, you don’t give yourself enough credit either. Without you, she would have never gotten this far… I have to wonder though, why you’re going through so much trouble for this one girl that you hardly know? Mind you, without her, you wouldn’t have as many gashes in your body right now, either.”
Nate pursed his lips and stared at the barn doors, wishing the answer would come walking through at that very moment to help him respond to the question. “I… I don’t know… I just… I don’t know. I don’t know why I’m here; I don’t know why I’m doing this at all anymore. I thought I knew, but now I’m not sure.”
“Well, do you want my opinion?” Mr. Forger asked bluntly.
“If it has the word I’m thinking in it, then I don’t want to hear it.”
Mr. Forger laughed and shook his head. “Why do you want to rule that out so quickly? It may not be bad to say it.”
“It would be bad. It’d be the end of all life as I know it. I don’t want to think it involves that word because if it does, my heart wouldn’t be able to take it.” Nate folded his arms as well and leaned against another anvil across from Mr. Forger, his eyes still fixed on the doors.
“Oh, is this the same Nathan who told me so many years ago that he didn’t have a heart and if he did, it was made of stone? Has Kyra melted that stone?”
A moment of silence fell between the two as Mr. Forger stoked the coals. They both knew the answer.
“It would be a disaster, either way. It could never happen,” Nate tried to rationalize, bringing himself back to reality. He picked up his tongs again and stood up straight, trying to mask the pain he must have been feeling on the inside already.
“Would it really be that bad just to admit it?” Mr. Forger asked calmly, not looking back to Nate.
“Yes, it would be… I won’t allow myself that kind of hope.”
Mr. Forger brought back the piece of metal and began hammering at it again, beginning to wonder something in particular about “Kyra” and why Nate was so adamant about shooting down any hopes of love.
Nate didn’t continue the conversation any further, but only held the metal in place for Mr. Forger.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. Nate looked up and saw Kiara just about to exit the barn with full pails of fresh milk in hand. She stopped at the barn doors that led outside and turned her head to look in Nate’s direction.
When their eyes met, he held his breath. And with one smile from her, his mind turned to jelly, went out the door and followed her as she walked outside. Once she was out of sight, he let a dreamy smile come across his lips and thought the words: Man, I love that girl.
By that evening, Kiara had never felt more sore in her life. Walking all day with Nate seemed like something she would have rather done than working on that farm with the ladies. She was sore in places she never knew she could be sore before. The worst part of it was that the day wasn’t even over. Luckily the evening would be spent inside and sitting down. All that was left of the women’s chores was to repair old clothes, create any necessary new clothes and spin more thread the next day.
Kiara was thankful for this little break mostly because she would get to sit down in a comfortable chair, sit around the fireplace and talk with the other girls. But, what made this task more enjoyable was that the window she was sitting right next to gave her a clear view towards the open work shop doors, where Nate and Mr. Forger were still working on the horse harness. She would get to spy on Nate the entire time. However, so could Leanne, who was sitting right across from her with her own window that allowed her to look out to the shop. Kiara couldn’t help but notice that Leanne was looking out the window about as much as she was.
But, instead of stoking flames of jealousy, Kiara decided to reminisce over the events of the day. After her morning chores of cleaning the clothes, milking the cows, feeding the sheep and helping Mrs. Forger with the house cleaning, her and Leanne cooked lunch for everyone. Without Nate around as the catalyst for a potential rivalry, Kiara found that her and Leanne had much in common. They both enjoyed reading and Leanne even showed Kiara her private collection of books. It was nothing compared to the library she was used to, but Kiara admired the quaintness of her passion. She promised Leanne that someday she’d come back to visit the farm with more books for her to read.
The whole family, including Nate and Kiara, sat in the living room for lunch. Everyone commented on how tasty Kiara’s fresh salad and Leanne’s salted pork was. Kiara didn’t think her salad was that impressive. If they knew the truth, she didn’t know how to make anything else without help.
During lunch, Kiara noticed that all the girls were sitting close to Nate. Even Miranda, who was too shy for her own good, sat at Nate’s feet while he sat in the red armchair. Little Ashley sat on the other side of Miranda, still at Nate’s feet, while Leanne and Kiara sat on either side of him. Kiara had to pull up a wooden chair from the dinner table because Leanne stole the couch seat. Kiara resented her for such a move, but that’s not what annoyed her the most. Owen sat on the other side of Nate, next to Kiara, and he wouldn’t stop staring at her. It was most unpleasant and Kiara felt like scolding the boy.
The twin boys sat in the middle of the living room and wrestled most of the time instead of eating. It became the main spectacle for everyone, but when Jeremy - or Hunter - got a scrape on his knee from the stones that made up the fire place hearth, Mr. Forger ended the fun.
Something Kiara also noticed was that while Leanne kept trying to make conversation with Nate, he would answer her, but occasionally be glancing in Kiara’s direction. She wondered if that was a sign of something to hope for, or if it was just her imagination.
After lunch, it was time for harvesting. The sun was high in the sky, shining down on rows and rows of tall corn and wheat. Luckily, the sun also provided some much needed warmth.
Everyone was given baskets for collecting the ears of corn for later, while Mr. Forger and Nate pushed along a wagon to collect the crops. The men were given the special responsibility of operating three sickles - one to each grown man - to cut the wheat. The women and children trailed behind, picking up the wheat that fell to the ground and wrapping them in huge bundles. When the bundle became too much to carry, they would just sit it upright in the field.
Occasionally, Kiara saw Nate looking over his shoulder to her. While she was picking up the wheat he was chopping down, it occurred to her that they hadn’t spoken a word to each other since he had given her a lesson on how to milk a cow. So, Kiara took the initiative herself to make some kind of conversation.
“Hey, Nate, how’s your shoulder feeling?” she called out to him, hoping her voice would reach over the fifteen feet of distance between them.
“Fine,” he answered curtly. Kiara was content with that one word, but she wondered also if there was something the matter. If he really was watching her and looking at her more than looking at the other girls, but still not talking, then what was the matter?
After harvesting most of the wheat, the family moved on to the field of corn. Some of the stalks were tall enough for Kiara to reach, but others grew far above her head. How did Mr. Forger expect them to harvest every ear of corn when they grew that tall? So, she did the best she could, even breaking a few stalks in an attempt to bend the ear of corn down to a reachable distance. Still, when she came to the wagon to deposit her gatherings, everyone else was still collecting more than her.
Kiara took Miranda aside and asked how she and everyone else was getting all of that corn in so short a time. Without having to answer verbally, she pointed over towards the end of one the rows. From it, emerged Nate with little Ashley sitting over his shoulders, her scrawny legs dangling over his chest. She was balancing the basket on Nate’s head until they came close enough to the wagon to dump it all in. Kiara couldn’t help but smile, as Nate seemed to interact with Ashley like he was her big brother. It was cute to see him scare her by quickly squatting down, then bursting back up. She would always giggle, though, and hit him on the crown of his head, calling him a “bad horsy”. Kiara noticed that Mr. Forger was carrying one of the twins over his own shoulders too, while Mrs. Forger and Owen took turns carrying the other twin. Leanne and Miranda took the chance to have their younger siblings pick off the ears for them, trailing behind the adults with their baskets.
The Princess and Her Rogue Page 21