It had been two hours when she finally stopped in front of a small cottage. She knocked on the door without a reservation. Her eyes smiled as if she had been liberated. Gifted something she had never deserved.
The door opened after three knocks and he saw a woman dressed in the clothes of a pauper.
"I am here to offer the treatment." she whispered in a gentle voice as if she was afraid that she would scare the mother. The mother bowed her head with fear when she noticed Lenhart standing behind her.
The grip on the door tightened.
"He meant no harm." she assured me though she was not sure herself. He could have sent anyone if he wanted to take care of her. Why must he come himself? The thought had clutched her tighter than she had accepted.
"Will you wait outside?" she asked when the woman did not let go of the door. His silence gave her the reply and she sighed.
"I will not harm anyone. I am here to keep a watch." the words would have meant nothing to the woman if not for the cry of her child.
She flinched at the voice and opened the door with a longbow of her head.
Len stood at the door. Leaning on the wall with his legs crossed while Elara crossed the small hall with only four steps. There was nothing feminine in her actions as she checked the child and offered treatment. She asked his mother to pestle the herbs and warm the water while she cleaned the wounds herself that stunned him.
He had thought she asked for money for offering treatment. But she made the paste herself and applied it on the child without reservations. No noble lady would do that.
Even the kindest would offer money but she was sitting there on the old bed without caring how many people have died there, vomited there and how many germs it contained and ready to hold the child in her silk dress. Without caring it would be stained with his body.
More than that, a stranger. If it had been someone closer, he would have tried to find meaning in it. But for a complete stranger, showing this kind of devotion… he had thought she would be changed with time.
His stoic face did not change any expression but his eyes flickered with a wave of past memories. He had met her in the woods. She was taking care of a small pup. He was so astonished and afraid that the pack of wolves would come for her.
She must have taken the pup as a dog but she told him that the wolf was injured and when the litter came, they did not try to harm her but played with her. He had never been this shocked in his life as a child.
Since then he has followed her. She was nothing like a woman should, yet everything he had ever desired in a woman. Since then, they started to meet in the meadows. His family was strong enough to make a connection with her family. And he started visiting her house.
The emotions developed quickly and that night when she gave herself to him willingly, he had thought that she loved him too. But then, his family fell from the grace of the king when his father refused to give his daughter to the tenth wife of the king.
They suffered so much and when he needed the most, she left. She left to marry someone else because he did not have wealth and power to offer him anymore. In that moment he realized she was as hollow as others.
The difference was only in her upbringing. Since she did not have parents, she must have grown up with the maids so she did not differentiate between them and her.
His eyes hardened. All the warmth vanished in a second. But hatred did not replace it. It was filled with void, a lack of emotion where one feels nothing toward the other.
For him, she was only a stranger he had come to meet during a mission. Alas! If only, his heart would accept it that easily too.
"I am done here, my lord." he blinked to see that she was already standing in front of her with the basket in her hands. It was empty now. the bread, coins and a bottle of jam now on the bedside and an astonished weeping mother standing beside them. Her head bowed again but this time with gratitude.
He nodded. "Very well, then we should depart." he noticed that she was still able to walk freely. He had thought she would be tired already after walking all the way here.
He took in a deep breath and did not mount on his force. Holding the reins of it. He walked with her. After walking a mile, she stopped. The silence was filled with shrieks of memories between them.
She was looking at the apples and when he did not stop her. She climbed on a small tree and picked up one herself.
When she jumped from there, he ran to her startled, earning a laugh from her. The feel of this freedom, his smile and his worries. How much time had passed since she had them last? She had thought she had lost everything a long time ago. Even among so many uncertainties about her future, she was happy at this moment, because she had him again, or perhaps, she was free again.
The sun was gentle on her face, and the wind sighed through the trees. She knew he was there to kill her or imprison her perhaps. Would she not be a fool if she told the world that she felt protected, she felt safe in this moment when he was here with her.
"Would you like to have one too?" she asked so innocently that he blinked. As if she was a child again. The thought made him smile despite his reservations.
"Your smile suits you." she spoke and then froze.