'I have taken interest in a girl. She is gentle and kind, but I do not know if she would want a man like me. She is so innocent and fascinating to look at. With the way I visit the tavern, one might say I am ambushing her.' He laughed.
His mother liked that he had found love and it made her happy, but she still had no idea what her son wanted advice on. All he needed to do was show up at her house with some bread or biscuits and hand-picked flowers to make his intention for marriage known.
'Whatever do you need my help with?' She asked with a broad smile on her face.
'Mother, I might have made a grave mistake.'
Richard rarely kept anything from his mother because he knew how supportive she was of him.
She had proved time and time again that nothing he did could make her hate him so what was going to happen if he told her about his encounters with Gina?
'You have not touched this girl? Have you?' The smile on her face disappeared.
She was staring into her son's eyes, begging to get a negative reply from him because she understood how bad it was for his name if it was found out that he touched a woman who had not paid his dowry.
'No. I will not do such a thing. Mother, I have pride.' He lied to her.
The grave mistake he wanted to confess was his affair with Gina but seeing his mother's reaction, he knew it was unwise for him to carry on.
He was going to lie to her instead. After all, she was going through so much already. Her husband was very ill, and she had health problems to deal with.
'Then whatever is this grave mistake you have made?' Curiosity had taken the place of anger in her voice.
'Mother don't worry about it. Shall I bring you your fish? They are getting cold.' He managed to change the topic quickly and with something more interesting to his mother, fish.
Richard's mother was the daughter of the best fisherman of his time, Edgar. And he had been a man of different personalities.
Although fishing was not a woman's job, Edgar went on fishing adventures with his four daughters.
He said he could not do without passing his knowledge on fishing to his children and seeing that he had no sons, he made do with his daughters.
Richard's mother was the last-born child, and she was closest to her father. She was the one Edgar took on most of his trips and that heightened her love for fish. She knew how to catch them with ease, and she passed that knowledge to her son.
From a young age, Richard's mother took him on sea trips, at least, that was what she called it. In reality, she was teaching him to fish because she did not want her father's skill to die with her. She wanted to defy the odds as her father had done and she taught her son how to fish.
'Well then, why the sluggishness? Bring me my plate and some water.' She laughed.
While Richard was bonding with his mother, Gina was bonding with her cousin, Missy.
Missy was an easy-going woman with a youthful spirit. She liked to read and draw but her father, Benedict would not have her say a word about those. He told her a woman was made to care and not waste her life drawing or reading.
For a long time, she believed him and kept her collection of newspapers away but whenever she grew bored of tending to the tavern, she hid in one of the rooms, reading a paper.
'Must you be there? Can you not be excused for a day?' Gina asked Missy who wanted to end their little alone time because she needed to be at the tavern, serving drinks to people who had nothing better to do on a Saturday morning than drink their income away.
Gina never understood the concept of working to earn money because her father, Edmund, was a provider. He gave her all her needs and to him, a woman working was an atrocity.
'My father must not see me speaking with you here. But I have an idea. You can stay with me at the tavern, just away from the visitors because I know your father would hate for you to get involved.'
Missy was right. Edmund was going to take a life if he found out his daughter was among people he described as 'mindless.'
'Never mind that. I shall only distract you. While you work, I shall help your mother out in the kitchen, I am sure she needs some help.' Gina smiled.
It was clear to Gina that her cousin was different from her. Missy was more thoughtful and gentler while she only acted on impulse.
Just like that morning, when she stripped and touched herself. She had acted in that manner because she woke up from a dream that made her want a man's touch. But not just any man's touch, she wanted Richard's touch.
As she left the room where she had spent a better part of the morning with her cousin, she kept thinking of how Richard must have spent his night.
She wondered if he fell into the trap of a whore and got his urges satisfied while hers just kept raging and eating her up from inside.
Gina had walked to the kitchen where she suspected Missy's mother was going to be, preparing nonmete but to her surprise, only the cooks were there.
Gina knew Missy's mother always prepared their nonmete so it was absurd that she was not in the kitchen.
It felt like a sign for her to go back to the room where she had spent the night and try touching herself again.
Maybe she had been too anxious earlier to have gotten it right. At least she was a lot calmer, and she knew she could navigate better with a clear head.
She was very determined to touch the sweet spot that Richard always teased her with.
When she got to the room, she locked the door behind her and went through the routine of stripping and folding her clothes neatly.
She grabbed her breasts and bit her lower lip. She was ready to try again. She was ready to give herself the pleasure Richard always showered on her.
Gina laid down on one of the beds in the room and she spread her legs apart. She closed her eyes tightly and began to picture Richard's face.
It was no task for her because whenever she closed her eyes, that was the image she saw.