Mason has been covertly peering at me, so I smile at him without any guile. “I love it! This is wonderful.”
He clears his throat and drops his eyes with a nod. “Okay, good. It’s not real clean, but I’ve been doing the best I can.”
“It doesn’t look that bad. I can easily freshen it up. I really like it.” Then, because it’s clear he’s concerned about whether I’m going to be happy here, I add, “I’m truly glad you asked me. This is nicer than anything I could have hoped for, and it’s going to be so much better than what I had.”
“Anything’d be better than living with Lorraine and Aria, but you can let me know if you need anything or if something isn’t working for you. I know there’ll be an… adjustment period.”
“Yes, I’m sure. But I don’t think it will be hard. Not for me anyway.” Nervous again, I add, “And you let me know if you need anything from me or if I can do something better. I’ll have to learn how to help with the farm, but if you canteach me that, I can handle all the housework without any worries at all.”
“Oh. You don’t have to help with the farm. If you can take care of the inside stuff, that’s all you’ll need to do.”
“But that’s too easy! You won’t be nearly the trouble that Lorraine and Aria and all their stuff was for me. I think I’ll have time to do more.”
I want to do more. There’s no way I’ll deserve to live in this lovely home without doing more work to earn it.
He looks like he’s going to argue again, but then he swallows it back, nodding with another one of those downward looks. “We can just take it as it comes.”
“That sounds good. Thank you.”
I walk around the kitchen, checking out all the appliances and the large pantry. Then Mason shows me one of the bedrooms. It’s the larger one. He’s obviously been sleeping there since the bed is unmade and there are a few dirty clothes on the floor.
The second room has a smaller bed in it and a window that looks out on the meadow behind the house. It’s slightly cluttered with some random items scattered around and one corner with piled boxes.
“You can have this room,” he says, “if it looks all right for you.”
My spine stiffens with a jerk. My eyes grow big and round. “I… I get my own room?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t you?”
“I… I don’t know. I just expected…” I trail off, hotly embarrassed by what just crossed my mind.
It’s evidently crossing his mind too. His face flushes, and he stares fixedly out the window. “We can… we can change things up later if we want. But I thought, since we don’t really… really know each other, we can take it slow. If that’s all right with you. Until we want to…”
I’m washed with the strangest mingling of amusement and appreciation. He’s obviously just as self-conscious as I am about the bedroom duties that are normally part of marriage.
Some people have sex for recreation, but I never did. No one talked about sex as wrong but rather as a waste of time. Since I was always a good girl, I never wanted to waste time with something so useless. I never even met someone I wanted to try it with, even if Lorraine had offered me the opportunity to spend any time with a man.
She didn’t. No one ever taught me about it—at school or at home—so that aspect of life is completely unknown to me.
But Mason said we can take it slow, so I don’t have to worry about it right now.
“Thank you,” I tell him. “That sounds like a good plan. And I would love to have this room as mine.” I set down my shoulder bag on the bed. “We probably should get to the market soon before it ends for the day.”
Thirty minutes later, Mason and I have reached the main square of the village where the market stalls are all set up.
It’s not as loud and busy as it is in the morning hours, but there are still plenty of folk mingling around, checking out wares or gossiping about the newest developments in the community.
I’m still wearing my new dress, but my elegant hairdo got messy on the trip back, so I braided it in my normal way instead. I also put on my work boots since my feet are hurting from walking too long in the nicer shoes.
I still look a lot better than normal, and Mason is right beside me. I can feel eyes turn toward us in surprise.
When a couple of running kids barrel between us, pushing me to the side, Mason reaches out to take my hand to keep us together.
No one has ever held my hand except my family. His hand is big and warm and strong. I like how mine feels clasped in his.
Secure.
Safe.
