He looked contrite. “My apologies, dear. Just didn’t want the thief getting away.”
“All our chickens are accounted for. I promise.” She took his arm and pulled him toward their home. “Now shall we go inside? Supper is nearly ready.”
“Good, good. I’m starved, now I think about it.”
I watched them amble slowly back to their home, happy that Mr. Tanner was back under the careful eyes of his wife, but worried that his episodes of illogical fear and suspicion seemed to be getting more frequent. I shook my head and turned back, intent on collecting Herman, but stopped abruptly when I nearly ran into a horse’s nose. I jumped, startled.
“My apologies, miss. I didn’t intend to frighten you.”
“Not at all,” I responded to the gentleman, who was now standing beside his horse. How had he followed this whole time without me realizing it? “I merely expected you to be gone by now.”
“I promised to help catch a chicken thief if need be.” He shrugged as if he did such a thing regularly.
“Thank you for helping. He really isn’t dangerous. He is just frightened by strangers.”
He didn’t respond but instead studied me like he was trying to do a puzzle.
I looked away, embarrassed by the attention. “I’m certain you have somewhere you need to be.” I gave a little curtsy and moved to walk past him. I got barely behind the rump of his horse before he called out.
“Kinley?”
I turned back, wondering when he had heard my name. “Yes?”
A grin split his face. “It is you.”
I stepped back, taken off guard by the familiarity of his smile. “Excuse me?”
He snapped his feet together and stood very straight before executing a perfect bow. “Rylander Baylor at your service.”
My breath caught as soon as he said the name, and my eyes searched his features, looking for the little boy I had known in the man that stood before me. “Rylan?” I breathed, and he nodded, still with that familiar grin in place. “Oh . . . my” was all my idiot brain could say as I took in his fine horse and his fine clothes and his fine eyes.
I probably still had pear juice on my face.
“How are you, Miss Kinley?” he asked with the same light in his eyes that he used to have whenever he would tell me about his favorite part of a lesson.
“I am . . . well,” I answered in a breathless sort of stuttering. “Very well, thank you. I hope all is well with you and your family. How are Lord and Lady Baylor?”
“My father runs his business affairs with an iron fist and my mother coddles the staff, so everything is as it should be.” He grinned.
“Good.” I had to ignore the grin so that I could speak. “And Master Welsley and Tayana?”
“Welsley takes life too seriously but is ready to take over for Father at a moment’s notice. Tayana is soon to be married.”
“Good, good. That’s very good.” It was so very awkward to be standing in front of this man who had befriended me as a child. How was I supposed to act?
“And what of your family?” he asked eagerly. “It was your brother, was it not? That married . . . ”
“Princess Ariella, yes.” No one seemed to be able to say it out loud, worried that if they were wrong, I’d somehow be offended. I was used to finishing the thought.
He gave a crooked smile. “That must have been an interesting adjustment.”
I laughed, surprised at how succinct that description was. “It was a surprise and an adventure, and I really do adore her.”
“I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting her, but everyone seems to have an opinion one way or the other.”
“I can only imagine.” While most of the common folk had accepted Ella and Gavin, I knew that the nobility had not been so easily convinced when she’d stooped to marry a commoner.
He smiled, so casual, so comfortable.
I felt the need to fill the silence. His horse bobbed its head, trying to get Rylan’s attention. I pointed to him. “And who is this?”
He reached up, stroking the horse behind its ear. “This is Apollo. Say ‘Good day,’ old man.”
The horse actually nodded its head. I was reminded of Herman, who I had abandoned.
“I should go.” I gestured awkwardly down the lane. “It was a pleasure seeing you.”
“Wait. Can I see you tomorrow?”
My confusion made the corner of my mouth quirk up. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I’d like to speak with you again,” he said as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
“Oh, um.” He was nobility, and I was decidedly not. “I have to get Herman. My pony, he’s—” I pointed behind me as if that would explain my inability to speak coherently, then turned to walk back the way I had come.
“I’ll walk with you. It’s getting rather dark out.”
I nodded, hoping my lazy pony had stayed reliably in the spot I’d left him. I didn’t fancy searching for him while Rylander Baylor followed after me.
How very strange it was to see him again. How very different from when we had been children. Something about being adults made everything strange and uncomfortable. At least it made me uncomfortable. Rylan seemed perfectly at ease, like the same energetic twelve-year-old, but transformed into a man’s body.
“How long has it been?” he asked in a pondering sort of way.
“Since what?” I asked, though I was fairly certain I knew.
“Since last we saw each other. I was twelve, and you were nearly so, so it must have been more than five years.”
“I suppose so.”
“You look the same.”
I cut my eyes over to him. “I certainly hope not.”
“Well, of course you don’t look the same, but you look like you.” He gestured to me. “You look better, more . . .” He waved his hand from my head to my feet, and I wondered what in the world he was going to say. “Taller.” He looked away, seeming uncomfortable for the first time.
I just smiled. “Yes, well, you look more taller as well.”
He scratched the back of his neck and cleared his throat. It was quite fun to watch him squirm a bit. He pointed ahead. “Is that noble creature your Herman?”
Dear Herman was exactly where I had left him, munching on some grass on the side of the road. “Yes, and he is quite noble. You won’t find another pony so loyal.”
“And what’s the burden he carries?”
“Fruit from my orchard.”
“Do you and your family eat it all or do you sell your wares?”
“We sell most of it, of course. There would be far too many for us to consume, even on our hungriest days.”
“Do you have many hungry days?” His question was quiet, tinged with worry.
“Not at all. We’re well able to take care of one another.”
“I know you have the one brother, Gavin, is it?”
I nodded.
“Any other siblings?”
“A sister, Janie, who married soon after you and I met, and another brother, Fynn, who is determined to be the bane of my existence.”
He reached over and tugged on one of the ringlets that hung at my elbow, making it spring back up. “I’ll bet you’re easy to tease.”
I rolled my eyes. “He certainly thinks so. If only he would marry and leave me in peace.”
“How do you know he’ll leave you in peace once he is married?”
We reached Herman, and I picked up his rope with a sigh. “You have a point.” I tugged on it to get my pony moving while Rylan turned his horse around.
“How far is it to the fair maiden’s house?”
“That would depend on which fair maiden you’re talking about. But I would imagine they’re all quite far from here.”
“You always did have wit.”
I raised my brow at him, skeptical of his assessment but amused by his easy manner. “How would you know? This is the longest conversation we’ve ever had. And where are you going
, anyway? Why were you wandering around threatening to steal chickens from poor old farmers?”
He laughed out loud. “I was riding. I swear I had no intention of pilfering any farm animals.”
“This isn’t exactly the place for nobility to take a country ride.”
He shrugged. “I’ve already taken the usual country rides. I like getting to know more of the countryside.”
“You always did want to know more.” I smiled at the memory of his curiosity rubbing off on me.
“Ah yes, my brother accuses me constantly of having my nose in too many books.”
“Does he mean it as an insult?”
“Very much so. On the other hand, he has yet to beat me with a fencing foil, so his little insults don’t sting as much as he hopes they will.”
“He’s never beaten you?” I asked with obvious incredulity. “He’s several years older. You mean to tell me you were able to beat him when you were thirteen and he already sixteen or seventeen?”
He cleared his throat while trying not to smile. “I stand corrected. He has not been able to best me in fencing for the last several years.”
“The truth is revealed.”
“Forgive me my exaggeration. I certainly meant no deceit.”
“You simply meant to boast.”
He opened his mouth, then shut it, probably wishing to protest but thinking better of it. “Very well, I will admit to that.”
I let out a laugh, glad to have had this conversation with an old friend, happy to know he was very much the same as I remembered him. We had reached the little path that led to my house, so I stopped. I tilted my head toward the lane. “This is my home. And I’m afraid it would scare my mother into her grave to have a nobleman show up without any forewarning. So I must bid you farewell.”
“Thank you for the walk, Miss Kinley.”
“Thank you for assuring my safe arrival, Mr. Baylor. Good night.”
“Until tomorrow.” He bowed as I knew he would, and I guided Herman down the path.
Would he truly come again on the morrow?
I put Herman in his pen, then unloaded the baskets of apples into the barrels that we kept in the barn. The pears I laid out on a table, leaving space between each one so that they wouldn’t bruise as they ripened. I ran to the house and rushed to my bed, where I pulled out the tiny box of treasures that I kept hidden beneath. It was easy to find the letter since it always sat at the top, my most prized possession. It wasn’t written in the curly handwriting of a noble, but in the careful script of a boy who knew I was unfamiliar with reading.
Kinley,
I am sorry to see you go. I will miss you. Be well and safe.
Your friend,
Rylan
It had taken me several days to decipher the words, and even then, I wasn’t sure. I was surprised when Gavin brought home a book months after I’d left the Baylors’ employ. An actual book that he and I pored over every night trying to understand, trying to piece together words that sometimes didn’t seem like words at all. I would have given up and declared it a waste of time, but Gavin was relentless. He was undeterred and willing to work at it over and over again. I didn’t understand why until much later. Knowing how to read was important to him because reading was such a part of who Ella was. When they were first becoming friends, she would come to the garden and read out loud to him from this book or that, whichever book she was reading herself. I knew it gave him an immense amount of satisfaction to be able to go into their marriage with that skill, no matter how rudimentary.
After their marriage, Gavin brought me all kinds of books, a few to keep, most to borrow. Over the past six years, since Rylan had first started teaching me letters, I had gone from struggling to remember what sounds went with what letters, to being able to read most of the books that Ella and Gavin lent to me. Gavin had happily provided me with paper, quill, and ink, suggesting I learn to write. As if I needed any encouragement. The moment I got my hands on the materials, I started practicing every day. Lopsided, wobbly scrawls that I eventually tamed into tidy script. The ability to read and write was a gift, and one I didn’t take lightly. Rylan had given me that, and I now understood his thirst for knowledge and was glad for the opportunities to discuss what I had learned with Ella or Gavin.
I hadn’t realized until tonight how wonderful it might be to have someone like Rylan to share my thoughts with, to discuss what I had read. He had said he would see me tomorrow, but would he really?
Chapter Four
SINCE FYNN AND I had finished the wool carding yesterday, I had most of the afternoon to gather as many apples and pears as I could. Market day was tomorrow, so it was the perfect time to pull as many good pieces of fruit as I could get my hands on.
Papa needed the wagon today, so I would have to take each load back to the barn on Herman’s back. It made the work more tedious, but I didn’t mind too much.
I sang and hummed to myself as I set my ladder below the branches of an apple tree that still hung heavy with fruit. I liked singing to my trees. I liked singing regardless, but singing in the orchard where no one was about to hear me was especially relaxing.
My voice faltered when my ladder wobbled beneath me. I grabbed a branch and looked down to see Herman eating the fallen apples around my ladder, nudging it as he went.
“Herman, don’t you dare knock me over,” I threatened, grabbing onto a branch.
My threat did not work and as he continued to nudge, I stepped onto a limb in time to watch the ladder topple completely.
“Traitor!” I shouted in frustration. It’s not that I couldn’t swing down. I could, but in order to do so, I would need to drop all the apples that were even now clutched in my apron. “You realize you’ve wasted a full half hour of my time, don’t you?”
Herman didn’t look up from his munching.
I sat for a minute, trying to figure out how to preserve some of the fruit I’d gathered without breaking my neck. Herman was directly below me, with the baskets on either side of his back. I leaned against the trunk so that I could let go of the branch and grab an apple. I tossed it toward the basket and instead hit Herman’s back. He flicked his ears but kept eating. I tossed another, and it landed neatly where I intended. Of course, I had probably just bruised not only that apple, but the others it had landed on. I had to rethink my strategy.
When Rylan appeared below me, I startled and grabbed ahold of the branch above me.
“Oh good, I found the right orchard,” he said.
“What are you doing here?”
He shaded his eyes with his hand as he looked up at me. “I asked if I could come see you again today.”
“Yes, but I didn’t say you could.” Not that I minded him being here, but . . . why? What would compel him to seek me out?
“You didn’t say I couldn’t, either.”
I tried to scowl at him. “Are you still twelve years old?”
“You don’t like persistence in a man?”
Did I like persistence? I thought of Zander and wondered if he would be persistent in courting a girl. “I don’t know what I like in a man.” The moment the words slipped from my mouth, I realized that I was much too comfortable around Rylan. What was I thinking, saying such things to him?
“Were you planning on staying up there?”
I held out the apron. “I didn’t want to drop these and ruin them.”
He went around Herman, patting the pony’s rump and looking at the baskets rigged over his back. “Toss them to me.” He held out his hands.
I wondered why he didn’t simply right the ladder but gave a mental shrug and adjusted my seat again before tossing the fruit, one by one, down to Rylan’s waiting hands. He caught them all easily, despite my unreliable throws, and placed them gently in Herman’s baskets.
“Now you,” he said, reaching up his arms.
“Just put that ladder back.”
He gave me a look as if I were being ridiculous, which I wasn’t. “Now who’s ac
ting twelve?”
I clenched my jaw, but reached down and let him take hold of my waist and help me to the ground. “Thank you,” I said a bit grudgingly.
“Do you usually kick your ladder over?”
I looked at him askance as I tucked my flyaway curls back under my kerchief. “Herman was hungrier than usual and found the apples under the ladder to be especially tasty.” I brushed off my skirts even though there really wasn’t anything to brush off. “What are you doing here?”
“Talking to you.” He was grinning, precisely like he always had as a boy.
I bent and picked up the ladder, moving it to one of the few pear trees. “What are we going to talk about?” I yanked my skirts out of the way and climbed up, unsurprised to look down and see Rylan leading my pony over.
“Have you lived here your entire life?”
I started pulling fruit down. “No, we were able to lease this piece of land a little over four years ago.”
Through the leaves, I watched as Rylan circled around the tree and forced a pear from the branch. He looked at it a moment before looking at me. “How do you know which ones are ready?”
I took hold of a pear still dangling from its branch and turned it horizontally. “Turn it on its side. If it comes off the branch easily, then it’s ready. If it stays attached, you need to leave it be.”
He tested my method on a few and saw what I’d meant, then started pulling fruit from the lower branches. “Do you like it here?”
“Very much.”
“Do you always sing when you harvest?”
The ladder wobbled. I hadn’t realized he’d heard me singing. “I suppose so. Sometimes I don’t realize I’m doing it.”
He leaned to the side so he could see me through the branches. “Do you still find dances as enthralling as you did the first time?”
I smiled at the reminder of the raptures I’d fallen into after attending my first dance. “Perhaps not quite so enthralling, but I still look forward to them. Now tell me something about you.”
“Something about me?”
“Yes, you’ve been asking me all these questions. I think it’s your turn.”
Keeping Kinley Page 4