I stifled a laugh. Dressing to blend in with the more common subjects was something that Ella had a great deal of practice in. I had a feeling she would have enjoyed meeting Rylan, especially in his odd ensemble. “Very well. Most people would be anxious to have an introduction to a princess.”
He set his hat on his head with a lopsided smile. “I’m not like most people.” He hesitated in stepping away. “That fellow was heading to the smithy, was he not?”
An uneasiness filled me. “Yes.”
“Would you like me to tell him hello for you? Perhaps give him a secret message?”
My eyes went wide at the prospect of such humiliation. “You will do nothing of the sort, Mr. Baylor.”
“Mr. Baylor, is it?” he said with a smirk. “I thought we were distant relations.”
“Rylan,” I warned.
He held up his hands in surrender. “I won’t say a thing. Farewell.” And he was off, weaving through the crowds with the large feather in his hat bobbing wildly.
“You say he’s the son of a lord?” Suzannah’s incredulity was palpable.
“Yes, indeed. Though I hardly believe it myself.” I turned to look at her. “Would you like to eat first?” I pulled over the stool that Rylan had been using and sank into it. I wasn’t used to standing for so long but had been too nervous to sit with Rylan here.
She nodded and pulled out her own bundle of food from her satchel. “Yes, but only if you tell me how it is that I spent the last hour with a nobleman sitting in our stall.”
I agreed and managed to tell her the tale of the stolen chickens and Rylan’s appearance in my orchard between helping customers.
When she finished her meal, we switched, and I pulled out my simple lunch, surprised to find a small chunk of wax among my bread and cheese. I picked it up and discovered that it had been carved to look like a flower. I shook my head in wonder, not knowing what to make of this little gift from Rylander Baylor.
Chapter Five
GAVIN HAD ENTIRELY lost his ability to sneak up on anyone as soon as he married Ella. I always knew when they were coming because of the excitement that swirled around them every time they entered the square. I was certain it drove her guards crazy. Then again, if I had to have guards always following me, I would probably be crazy myself.
I propped my elbow on the table and smiled at the procession. Ella didn’t look like royalty. Unless she was at the palace, her dresses were simple and unassuming, her hair done up in a braid or two. Gavin held their three-year-old in his arms, which kept her from being squashed by all the other children that crowded around my brother’s and sister-in-law’s legs. Ella still knew many of their names and never looked the least bit bothered by the attention. I was sure if it ever did bother her, she’d happily send a servant to do her shopping, but Ella had explained to me that every bit of interaction she had with the people of the village gave her joy. Something about the difference between polite society and people who loved without restriction.
Personally, I knew plenty of people that put endless restrictions on their love, but I suppose that those weren’t the sorts of people that would throw themselves in the path of Princess Ariella.
They took their time walking over to visit with me. Ella never seemed in a hurry and greeted each person who came her way. In turn, the villagers left her alone once she and Gavin reached my stall and stopped to say hello.
“Hello, Kinley,” Gavin greeted me, leaning across the table to kiss my cheek and transfer Guin into my arms at the same time.
“Good day, Gavin.” I turned my attention to Guin. “Hello, beautiful.”
She grinned and hugged my neck tightly. She was used to the commotion of walking through the square, but it seemed to make her extra willing to hang on to me.
“Good afternoon,” Ella said as she squeezed my shoulders. “Have you sold much this morning?”
“I’m not sure I’ll get rid of everything, but I might get close, perhaps have less than a barrel left by closing.”
Gavin picked up several pears, pressing on the flesh beside their stems before picking one out for Ella and another for himself. I knew I would find a fat gold coin in my box alongside all the tiny flat bronze ones by the time they left. Though, for the life of me, I could never catch him putting it there.
Ella pulled a book from the bag that Gavin had set down and handed it to Guin. “Would you like to show Aunt Kinley the book we brought her, sweetie?”
Guin nodded, taking the book and opening it to show me the title page and some of the illustrations while explaining that it was about a magic man who made everything turn green. I always liked her imagined plots; sometimes they were more interesting than the real content.
Gavin and his family stayed for only a few minutes, enough time for a curious crowd to gather around the stall. Then they moved on, and I settled back into selling my wares alongside Suzannah.
Near the end of the day, I saw Toren Gable pushing his way through the crowd with three of his children in tow, and I dropped my eyes to the table, remembering Fynn’s teasing about making a match with the widower.
“Good afternoon, Miss Suzannah, Miss Kinley,” he said as he arrived.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Gable,” I replied.
He smiled at me. “Please, call me Toren.”
I’d rather not. Doing so would make him sound like a friend, and I had no need for friends twice my age. “What can we get for you?”
“I’ll take a few of these apples, and Jessa needs a new candle.” He nodded toward his thirteen-year-old daughter, who ducked her head.
Suzannah and I handed over their items and accepted his payment, sending him off with a “Good day.”
The moment he and his brood were out of hearing range, Fynn appeared. “Did you have a good talk with Toren?” he asked with a too-wide grin.
“He bought fruit; he left. Nothing more.”
“Just as you say, Kin.”
I hated the smug look he gave me before turning to pack the barrels with our leftovers.
“Were you and Papa able to finish the chest he was working on?”
He shook his head. “Do you have any idea how much work he puts into everything he does? His work is incredibly detailed.”
“It’s taken you this long to figure that out?”
“It’s not like I have a lot of free time. Someone had to take over caring for the animals when he got hurt.”
I was about to respond, but Suzannah beat me to it. “You’ve done a good job of it, too.”
Both Fynn and I looked at her in surprise. There was a bit of awe in her voice, and her face flushed when she noticed the way we both looked at her. She turned away.
Fynn shook his head a little and murmured a “Thank you.”
I pinched my lips so that I wouldn’t grin.
✼ ✼ ✼
The next day, I was back to relieving my trees of their gleaming treasures. I had broken down this morning and asked Fynn to help me. He’d joined me midmorning after tending to the animals, but had to return to help my father by early afternoon. Whenever Fynn and I harvested together, he turned it into a competition. As such, I had spent the past several hours picking as quickly as possible, and my muscles were now paying the price. I was used to working long steady hours, not frantic ones.
I stopped to pull my shoulders back, then raised my arms overhead and leaned to both sides in turn before moving my ladder and climbing into another tree.
I heard someone clucking at a horse and looked out across the orchard, smiling when I spotted Rylan nudging his horse through the trees. I bit my lip, a smidgen of pride swelling in me at the knowledge that he would seek me out yet again, and so soon. Perhaps we really could be friends. He walked his horse right up to the tree I worked in and plucked an apple. He bit into it, smiling around the bite and saluting me with the apple.
“Good day, Mr. Baylor.”
“Good day, Miss Kinley. Delicious apples you have here.”
“
Thank you. Back for more torture?” I asked as I stretched my neck from side to side. Curse Fynn for making me think of it as torture.
Rylan dismounted and immediately went to work pulling apples down. “Just here to offer my assistance.”
“You’re going to spoil me,” I pointed out, though in truth I was glad for the company.
We picked in easy silence and then moved to the next tree, where we both worked gathering what we could from the ground. He was on the opposite side of the trunk when he asked, “So who was the fellow at market?”
“Brawn,” I answered in my distraction, then froze, realizing what I’d said. I closed my eyes, scrunching my face in humiliation before cracking one eye open to see if he had heard my answer.
He was leaning around the trunk so that he could see me, his brows nearly hidden behind his hair as he pressed his lips to keep from smiling. “Brawn?”
Could my face burn any hotter? “That’s . . . not . . .”
“That is what you said.”
I bent to place the apples in the basket at my feet and had a sudden need to rearrange them. Maybe if I crouched down here long enough, he would move on. But of course he wouldn’t let me ignore the subject. I could see his feet as he stepped to the side of the trunk and leaned against it.
I stopped rearranging and looked up at him.
The curiosity on his face didn’t ease my embarrassment at all. “You call him Brawn?”
I groaned. “It’s a ridiculous nickname that Suzannah and I came up with. It was a joke at first, but it sort of stuck.”
He bit his lips together and nodded. He was either trying not to laugh or not to frown; I wasn’t sure which. “Well. Brawn has obviously caught your fancy.”
I stood, brushing at my skirts before reaching for more apples. “It sounds silly when you say it like that.” I pinned him with a glare. “And his real name is Zander.”
He shook his head and gave me a look that made him seem much older and wiser than I was. “It’s not silly at all. Would it be better if I said he has captured your attention indelibly?”
“What does indelibly mean?”
“Undeniably. Permanently.”
I looked at him askance. “I don’t know about permanent. I can barely talk to him.” I turned back to the tree, unsettled by the heaviness of Rylan’s gaze. “And if I can’t talk to him, then how can I get to know him better?”
“But he has captured your attention?”
“Yes,” I admitted as I ripped an apple from the tree that probably wasn’t ready.
“Hm” was all he said before returning to the opposite side of the tree.
That was it? He was just going to make fun of me and then move on with his day? I huffed. “You could offer to help, you know.”
“Help with what?”
“My inability to be alluring.”
“You have trouble with that?”
I circled the tree so that I could glower at him. “You said that I was terrible at flirting!” I reminded him.
He started to say something, then seemed to change his mind. “So I did.”
“So then help me be better. What can I do to let him know that I want him to court me?”
He sucked in a breath, staring at me for an uncomfortably long time.
I squirmed and backed away. “Never mind. It was a silly idea.”
What was I thinking, asking a noble for help? Yes, he was being wonderfully friendly, but there was no need for me to act like a dolt. I dove back into harvesting, suddenly uncomfortable with his presence. That discomfort heightened when I went to climb the ladder and he put his hand over mine to stay me.
“Now, mind you, I’m no expert,” he started without warning. “But as far as I can tell, one of the most popular modes of gaining a man’s attention seems to be the art of being helpless.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s ridiculous.”
He shrugged. “I’m only telling you what I’ve observed.”
I considered that for a moment, then shook my head. “That may work with the ladies you know. They can afford to be helpless.” I continued up the ladder. “In my world, if you’re helpless, you starve.”
“Well, it’s the best I can offer.”
I smiled down at him. “Thank you for trying. I know I must seem pathetic.”
He gave a small smile and shook his head. “Never.”
Chapter Six
THE NEXT SEVERAL days I almost expected Rylan to show up out of the blue, but I didn’t see any sign of him. I spent my mornings in the shop with my father, freeing up Fynn’s time so that he could get his other chores done. That way he could help me harvest for a couple of hours. Whenever I spent time in the shop, Papa called me his assistant, but really I just fetched tools and pieces of wood.
I settled back into my usual routine of harvesting and made another successful trip to market. I tried to dismiss the idea of a misfit nobleman showing up to help with my burden of work or entertain Suzannah and me while we sold our wares.
Besides, there was a dance tonight—which was always exciting—but today I was more anxious than usual. Ever since noticing the attraction that Suzannah seemed to feel for Fynn, I had been hoping for a chance to push them together. A dance was the perfect opportunity.
Our entire family attended, and I enjoyed the dancing and revelry while keeping an eye on the way Fynn and Suzannah interacted.
Of course, I couldn’t keep an eye on them all the time because I had my own dancing to do. I had caught Zander’s eye several times, and he had even smiled but had yet to approach me.
Suzannah noticed me staring in his direction and nudged my shoulder. “Mooning over Brawn again?”
I stifled a laugh, then recalled the embarrassment of Rylan discovering our little nickname. “We really must stop calling him that.”
“But it’s just so fitting,” she murmured for my ears only.
“Nonetheless, it would be rather embarrassing if anyone, him especially, found out that we had our own nickname for him.”
“Doesn’t he look as if he could scoop you up in his arms and toss you into a haystack?”
I shook my head. “I’ve been tossed into a haystack too many times by Fynn to think it would be even faintly romantic.”
“He always did get a kick out of that. I wonder why he stopped?” she asked as both of us pulled our eyes away from Zander.
“It’s because I gave him a black eye last time he tried.”
She laughed. “I’d forgotten about that. He made up some story about getting into a tussle with two older boys instead of admitting that he had been bested by you.”
I shrugged, smiling at the memory. “He deserved it.”
Suzannah stared at her hands as she picked at her nails. “Where is Fynn, anyway?”
I looked around, realizing he was no longer close by. I stamped my foot, annoyed that he had abandoned us when he was supposed to be falling for my friend. “I swear, he disappears faster than a jackrabbit.”
“He probably went to dance with Lilianna. They would make a sweet couple, don’t you think?” She was still staring at her hands.
I scoffed. “I think nothing of the sort.”
“Why is that?”
“Because Lilianna has her eye on a different lad each week. She needs a few years before she’ll know what she wants.”
“You don’t think she’d fall for Fynn’s charms?”
So Suzannah thought my brother had charms, did she?
“I don’t think that Fynn will bother trying to charm her.”
We both jumped when Fynn appeared behind us and threw his arms around our shoulders. “What are you two ladies gossiping about?”
Suzannah blushed and looked away, but I threw an elbow back into his gut.
He did his best to muffle his groan, but it was still audible, giving me a wicked sense of satisfaction.
“And to think,” he said with a grimace. “I was coming over here to tell you that your beau is comin
g this way.” He waggled his eyebrows at me.
I gave him a derisive stare. “What are you talking about?”
“The blacksmith’s apprentice? Zander.” He pointed his chin behind me. and I couldn’t help turning to look.
He was right. Zander was heading toward me.
“Now I know who’s had you so distracted lately,” he mocked before pulling Suzannah away with him.
Suzannah looked back and gave me a smile that was half encouraging and half nervous. I guessed that the nervous half was due to Fynn’s hand on her arm.
“Miss Kinley?”
I turned back at the sound of Zander’s low voice. He was only a couple of steps away, his eyes dark and full of secrets, his shoulders impossibly broad. “Hello, Zander,” I was able to say without my voice shaking.
He held out a hand. “A dance, Miss Kinley?”
“Yes, of course.” My hand slipped into the warmth of his. I didn’t care if Fynn teased me about it later. I was going to enjoy this dance.
We hurried to join one of the many circles forming and linked hands with the others as the music began. We circled left, then right before the women turned to the men, allowing them to lift us by the waist from one side to the other. And on it went, with twirls, kicks, lifts, and turns all doused in laughter and smiles. Zander lifted me higher than anyone with no effort at all. His bright blue eyes lent a softness to him that balanced out the raw strength he exuded.
My heart was racing and my breath labored when the dance ended. I hoped that Zander would stay and talk with me awhile, but he only thanked me and squeezed my hand before being swallowed by the crowd once more.
I sighed. It was probably just as well. If I spent too much time with him, my heart might give out from thrumming so fast.
Suzannah found me and demanded a full report, after which we joined in the dancing without partners. That was the wonderful thing about these gatherings. No one need sit out simply because they weren’t chosen as a partner. I only hoped that Fynn might wake up enough to invite Suzannah to dance before the night was through.
My parents’ habit was to leave about midway through the evening, so when my mother waved me over, I already had my plan in place. I turned to Fynn. “I believe Mama and Papa are leaving. I’m going to go with them.”
Keeping Kinley Page 6