Hearing the neigh of a horse behind her, she moved to the side of the road path so the rider could pass by. She slowed her walk, hoping he would pass, and she would have the quiet and lonely path to herself again, but the rider stopped behind her.
She tried to resist the urge to look back at the rider because she was too tired for conversation, but she heard the rider slow to a walk behind her.
What does he want?She asked herself, feeling uncomfortable.
“A good afternoon, fair lady,” the rider said, and a smile spread across Ceana’s face. She turned around and saw Torcall sitting upon his steed.
“What might ye be doin’ around here?” She asked him a rhetorical question. Of course, she knew he had come to see her. She was the only reason he ever came to that part of the town.
“Oh--” He pulled back his hair and stretched so much that she feared he would rip his shirt with his barrel chest “--I came here to ask a beautiful lady to dare to go on a ride with me,” he said to her.
Am I smiling?She asked herself consciously. She could never stop herself from smiling whenever he was around her. Without thinking about it too long, she touched her face and felt the warm blush of it.
Torcall seemed to notice this, and his charming smile only got bigger.
“What if she says nay?”
“Then I shall beg her to come with me still.”
“What if she says nay a second time?”
“I shall pick her a rose and return to beg her.”
“If she says nay yet again, what would ye do?”
“I shall kidnap her because I refuse to spend this day without her,” Torcall replied. Impressed by his words, she let him see her smile.
“Come,” he said to her and extended his hand to her. He pulled her up onto his horse, and they rode for her home.
“Ye would have to wait a while. I must change me dress and cook meself a meal. It wouldnae take long,” she told him as they rode.
“I had me uncle’s cook prepare somethin’ for us.”
That surprised Ceana, and she admitted the extent to which he had gone to allow himself a day with her.
“Me dress?”
“Ye look beautiful in it still,” he assured her.
Ceana got off his horse when they got to her house, and she walked to her, walking faster than she had thought she had had the strength to. She put down the things she had gotten from the market and stood in her room for a moment. She wanted to use scenting oil, but she knew he would notice. He had told her that she was beautiful as she was, and she did not wish to make him feel that she did not believe him, so Ceana headed back out to him.
“Did ye do somethin’ while ye were in there? Ye look even more beautiful,” he told her as he got off his horse to help her up. Lifting her as though she weighed nothing, Ceana was proud of herself for resisting the urge to change her clothes or use oils. It was worth it, for he admired her even at her perceived worst.
He joined her on the horse, brushing his arms against her frailer ones as he grabbed onto the reins and led them away. She tried to think only pure thoughts as they both bounced on the horse, bodies hitting one another gently. With every contact, she felt how strong he was and imagined how lovely he would have been beneath it all.
“Ye would let me handle the reins when we return?” She asked him, knowing what his answer would be.
“Aye, milady.”
They came to the loch, and true to his words, a mat and a basket were waiting for them beneath a tree. Torcall helped her down from the horse, holding onto her waist for an obvious minute before he let her go. Ceana spoke nothing of this because she fancied his arms around her. Hand-in-hand, they came to the mat, and they sat down with one another.
It was like the last date they had had together.
“We should eat first?” He asked her, and she replied. Up until he had made mention of food, she had not felt its pang. She had not felt her fatigue even until he had reminded her.
They both ate, with Ceana putting a steak in his mouth, which he accepted readily. When they were done, they both lay side-by-side on the mat and stared at the sky above through the tree branches.
Torcall turned to look at her, but she still stared into the abyss.
