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A tingling spread up the back of Julia’s neck and across her face. “But...”
“He offered his congratulations,” Luc said.
Julia stopped and folded her arms, but her defiant gesture was short-lived when Luc and the umbrella moved on without her and the rain showered over her scarf and dress. She hurried to catch back up with Luc, grabbing on to his arm. “I don’t think it is the right thing to do, misleading this man like that.”
He adjusted the umbrella to cover her. “Rural people are... traditional,” he said. “Old-fashioned.” His smile remained, but he was no longer teasing. “He may have a different reaction to the pair of us traveling together unchaperoned if he knew the truth.”
“Oh,” Julia said, the blush she’d fought against all day returning with a vengeance. She hadn’t even considered the impropriety of their journey.
“So come along,mon plus cher amour.” The tease was back in his voice, but it was gentle, as if asking her to laugh along with him. “Shall we choose a goat?”
Though it was spoken in jest, the endearment caught her off guard, and she could think of no reply. She kept her eyes on the ground as they walked down the rocky path.
They reached a paddock filled with goats and joined the farmer beneath the overhanging roof of a small barn. Little goat kids ran about, kicking and jumping between the larger animals. They called out with bleats.
Julia clapped her hands and laughed at their antics. She couldn’t help it. The baby goats were utterly delightful.
The farmer spoke to Luc, pointing among the animals, and Julia didn’t even try to understand what they were saying. She was much too captivated by the little goats.
They kicked hooves that appeared too large for their bodies into the air, sometimes falling over from the sheer effort as they bounded throughout the paddock. One little goat jumped onto the back of another, balancing on what appeared to be the tips of his toes before he was bucked off. He bounded away through the mud, and two others followed.
The farmer entered the paddock and brought a few of the older goats over to Luc. He tied them to the fence, pointing out various features, then left the paddock to go into the barn for a tin cup. When he returned, he crouched down and reached through the slats of the fence to fill the cup with a bit of milk from one of the goats.
Luc took a sip and offered the cup to Julia.
She looked at it, wondering when it had last, if ever, been washed. But she remembered Alice and fought against the urge to wipe off the rim. She took a sip of the warm milk, and they repeated the process with the other goats’ milk.
“What do you think?” she asked Luc after the fourth sample. She could honestly not tell a difference in the flavor.
He pointed to a light-brown goat with white spots on her back. “That one has the sweetest milk.”
Julia nodded and looked closer at the animal. “Is she to be Alice’s goat, then?”
“The decision is yours,” Luc said.
She smiled and took the umbrella from Luc, walking to the fence for a closer look at the animal. Julia had no idea what made a good nanny goat, but she wanted to make a responsible decision and look over the animal for any obvious defects. The goat’s hooves and legs were muddy, and she produced a pungent smell that was only strengthened by the rain. The nanny gave a bleat, and her long tongue hung from the side of her mouth. As goats went, she was perfect.
“We will take her,” Julia said.
The men talked again, presumably discussing the price, and Julia returned to stand beneath the barn’s overhang.
The farmer went back into the paddock and untied the goat, bringing her to the gate. Two of the little kids followed with their delightful little bounces, their back legs moving in different directions than their front.
The farmer led the goat through the gate, but the animal drew back, fighting against him and bleating loudly. He gave a mighty pull, holding his leg out to stop the little ones from following. When he closed the gate, their bleats sounded like babies’ cries.
“Wait.” Julia tugged on Luc’s arm as she realized what was happening. “Are they her babies?”
“Looks like it,” he said.
“I didn’t realize she is a mother. And they are so small. We can’t separate them.”
The farmer called out a question.
Luc stepped out into the rain to explain.
Julia went to the gate and crouched down, holding the umbrella overhead and patting the crying goats. She wished she could comfort them. “Don’t worry, little ones. I won’t take away your mother.” She joined Luc and the farmer. “We will have to find another goat. One without babies.”
Luc folded his arms and sighed. “Juliette, if a goat is producing milk, it means she’s given birth.”
