The Mate He Gave Away novel · Chapter 27 of 40

Chapter 27: Spring

Under her glove, one of the twins kicked.

Hard. Right into the middle of her palm.

Ondine took her hand back.

"Mind yourself," I said. "It kicks."

For one second her face had nothing on it at all.

Then the smile came back, wider than before.

She walked off into the evening with her own belly carried out in front of her.

Corvin reached me before she reached the road.

"What did she say?"

"See you at Midsummer."

He watched the green silk until it was gone.

"She knows."

"She's known since she saw me walk in." I put my hand where hers had been. "Now she knows it kicks."

We were home before the end of March.

The ice had gone off the falls. The wheel turned so fast it threw rainbows.

In April the carts started coming up the river road.

The first one belonged to the woman in brown velvet.

She drove it herself, with her husband beside her looking at the sky.

Thirty sacks of barley, exactly as she'd promised at the wedding.

"One in twenty," she said, climbing down. "I've put the twentieth sack on the end, so nobody can cheat me."

"I'd never cheat you."

"I know. I'd like it in writing anyway."

After her came her neighbors from the third bend.

Then villages I'd only ever seen as numbers in the Hall's ledgers.

By May the river road had ruts in it a foot deep.

The sergeant met every cart at the ford, as promised, and complained about it at supper every night with enormous satisfaction.

The mill ran from dawn to dark.

I couldn't lift sacks anymore. Agnes had threatened to tie me to a chair.

So I sat on a stool by the mill door with the ledger on what was left of my lap.

Davy sat beside me and learned his letters off the sacks.

I wrote them in the flour on the floor with my finger.

R for rye. B for barley. D for Davy, which he traced so many times the boards wore smooth.

By the middle of May he could write a whole line.

He brought it to me on a scrap of gray paper and wouldn't let go of it until I promised not to laugh.

I unfolded it.

Four plantng. Not for the king.

"Davy. Where did you see this?"

"Corvin's coat. The inside pocket. He's got a tag in there and he never takes it out." He scowled. "I spelled it wrong."

"Just a couple of them."

← Chapter 26 · All chapters · Chapter 28 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend