Rubbing the sore spot, Ruben felt a fission of concern.
I'm becomin’ enamored with this lass.
It was a path he had never trodden before, and the best way to ensure he kept some clarity was to keep some emotional distance between them. The first step was to not laze about in bed, enjoying her kisses and company. He would leave before she woke up.
Tomorrow he would begin. Tonight, he would savor the comfort a little longer.
The following morning, Paige woke from blissful slumber, cocooned in warmth. She tried to get up before realizing a firm body lay was curled behind her. One arm lay across her waist, and one firm shin was wrapped around her lower leg— Ruben.
They were on their side, her head tucked up under his chin, and he slept soundly. She tried to move away, but his arm tightened.
“Nay,” he growled. Then he fell back to sleep.
Paige tried to shift out from under him, to move her leg out from under him or even tried to wiggled away, but again, he tightened his embrace and growled.
Even while asleep, the man is annoyin’.
With a resigned sigh, she decided to just wait until he awoke.
Her mind drifted to the day before the wedding and compared the man laying behind her to the cold, detached man she had been forced to marry.
It’s like night and day. He is nae as wicked as he seems.
She thought about the night before and felt heat sear her skin. God above. What a night! Who knew such wicked pleasure existed in life? It was positively exhausting. Delightfully so.
She yawned at that thought and drifted into oblivion. When she woke up again Ruben was gone. Disappointed that she was denied a chance to , Paige wondered if her idealistic thought about Ruben were only the thoughts of a na?f.
She slid from the bed and went to the washroom to clean up. After a warm bath, she dressed and went to the great hall for the morning meal.
After her meal, Paige summoned her maid. “Maisie? Would ye be able to tell me where Norah would be at this time of the day?”
Taking a moment to think with a load of laundry in her arms, Maisie said. “I believe she is where is normally is, at the part of the healer's herb plot. After a rain as we had last night, it is very beneficial to attend to the plans.”
“Thank ye. Ye can go back to yer duties now.” Paige nodded. then changed her dress to a serviceable brown dress and gray kirtle then left for her farms.
Before she went there, she went to the healer's room to get a basket of tool they used on the herbs and left to find Ruben’s sister.
The sky was mostly grey with a hint of pale blue here and there and the ground was sodden. Her boots sunk inches in the ground but she headed to the plot of land she remembered Norah working on days ago.
As she had hoped, Norah was there, working on the plot of land, her tools steadily dropping dried sawdust on the roots of the plants.
“Norah,” she called out softly, trying not to scare the woman. “May I join ye?”
With her head lifting, Norah gave Paige a quick look before nodding and went back to her work. Getting a mat, Paige knelt and began to work on the plants as well.
She knew it would be best to ease her way into getting Norah’s attention. “I ken nothin’ about herbs,” she said. “Can ye tell me why we need sawdust to put on the roots?”
“It absorbs the excess water because if there is too much water, the roots rot,” Norah said emotionlessly. “And in time, it adds nutrients to the soil.”
“That makes sense,” Paige replied. “And we cannot let the herbs rot when we need them. What herbs are these?”
“Bog Myrtle,” Norah said. “When combined with lavender and hops, the tea will surely send ye straight to sleep.”
“I may need some tonight,” Paige said offhandedly as she pressed more sawdust into the ground.
“…Why is that?” Norah asked.
“Hm?” Paige asked.
“Ye just said that ye would need to have some tonight,” Norah asked, her tone almost accusatory. “Why would ye say that?”
“Because….” Her mind flew to the moment one of the three men had grabbed her and began to shove her to the horse and the cutting fear that had sliced her chest in two.
Her eyes landed on Norah. “Because I was almost abducted yestereve and every moment I think about it, I feel like clawin’ his invisible hand off my skin.”
Norah’s hand clenched tight on the handle of her spade, so tight her knuckles went bloodless white. “What?”
Paige looked down. “I guess yer brother wouldnae want me to tell ye this and—and it might be hard for ye to hear considerin’ what ye’ve been through—” she sat back on her heels. “—but I figured is anyone could understand what I feel, ye would.”
Norah went back to digging, her motions stiff and her face rigid with tension. She was stabbing the ground with a force that Paige had not seen—or expected, from Norah.
Keeping her head down, Paige said, “When they tried to haul me onto the horse, one of the men tried to stuff a cloth in me mouth to stop me from screamin’. He had black eyes and so many scars on his face…”
Thinking of those fraught moments, Paige barely kept herself from shuddering. Her motion with the spade stopped, “When I look back into the man’s wicked, mean, cruel black eyes I cannae help but see me life flash before me eyes.”
She swallowed thickly, and her gaze landed on her trembling hand. “I could see a life of fear and fright and loneliness and— and darkness?—”
Norah threw her tool down, lurched from the ground, grabbed her basket and ran from the plot, startling Paige. Instantly, her heart fell to her feet; this was not good. If word got back to Ruben—and she had no doubt it would—she could already see the anger in his face.
Nay, nay, nay! This isnae good. What have I done?