She caught her breath. She wasn’t sure she had over the course of her entire life seen so many animals. “And what are their terms, these lads of yours?”
“I have tasks to accomplish.”
“That sounds terrible.”
He smiled faintly and she wanted to sit down. ‘Twas no wonder her sisters had been falling over themselves to get closer to him.
“I agree.”
“Are these tasks things to increase character and stamina,” she managed, “or simply foolish things with which to pass the time?”
He smiled again, as if he found something about that faintly amusing. “Simple things they no doubt thought would be amusing.”
“Very well, then,” she said, nodding firmly. “Let’s hear a pair of them. I’ll help you, then go home.”
He hesitated. “I wouldn’t want to be improper by accepting your aid.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I am honorable,” he said carefully, “but you are a woman alone.”
Mairead was heartily tempted to sit back down on the stump that hadn’t been a stump a pair of days ago. The only thing she could say in her favor was that the Duke wasn’t sending her any scorching looks, which she thought boded well for her virtue. Then again, he likely had serving maids who were far more handsome than she would ever be, so perhaps he wasn’t at all affected by her. She was indeed safe.
She watched as he went back inside. Perhaps he’d changed his mind and gone to fetch his list of tasks, though she had to wonder how his gear had found itself inside the croft to begin with. Perhaps he’d considered it a handy place to hide things before he’d continued on to the meadow, searching for aid.
He emerged once more with his sword again on his back, pulled the door shut behind him, then stopped in front of her and made her a slight bow.
“I would be honored to walk you back toward the meadow and keep watch as you return to the keep. I don’t want your master to think I’ve been keeping you here improperly in the forest.”
“My master?” she managed, then it occurred to her what he was thinking. She decided that perhaps, given his honorable conduct with all the kitchen maids he no doubt knew, there was no slur in those words. She nodded. “Very well spoken on your part.”
He nodded, but he was studying her as if things were occurring to him that hadn’t before.
She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that, so she nodded briskly at him, then turned and marched off through the forest toward the meadow. She didn’t last ten paces before she had to look over her shoulder and make certain he was still there.
He was simply walking behind her, his hands clasped behind his back, watching her with a grave expression on his face.
By the time they’d reached the northern edge of the forest, she wasn’t quite sure what to think about him.
She realized he was looking up and down the meadow in the same way she did, as if he made certain there were no souls there to cause trouble. Then again, he was who he was and that was how he conducted his affairs. She continued along the border with him until they stood on the edge of that unsettling ring in the grass. She was very surprised to hear her hounds baying in the distance, though she wondered why. Of course she would hear things of a normal and unremarkable nature.
She turned to look at her companion only to watch him make her a slight bow.
“Safely delivered.”
She reconsidered her assumptions. She suspected that if she’d been a man about some sort of vexatious business, it would have been very unwise to provoke that man there. But a woman?
What a fortunate, blessed gel it was who had attracted his eye and claimed his affection.
“Thank you,” she managed.
He held out his hand. “Oliver.”
She put her hand in his, watched him bend over it as if she’d been a fine lady and he the duke of some fine place she’d never been, then watched him step back and nod politely.
She nodded in return, then turned and walked away because she could think of nothing else to do. The sounds of sheep and goats and hounds was louder than it had been before, but she was also walking down the meadow toward them, so that was to be expected. She forced herself to continue on until she thought a reasonable amount of time had passed, then looked over her shoulder to have a final look at a man who couldn’t possibly be what she thought him.
He was gone.
