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When he spoke, it was with the accent she had heard many times in recent days. "Fair maiden," he said, "you seem somewhat burdened with your labor. Might I assist you in finishing your task, and then, perhaps, escort you to a place of greater leisure, where, if your favor extends so far—"
"You can save the rest of that speech." With an effort, Linnet cast the plank onto the pile before her, then stood breathless for a moment, trying to calculate how many days it would take her to gather the remaining wood.
"Ah." The man, whom she was no longer facing, seemed, if anything, more amused than before. "You have heard this approach on a previous occasion, I believe."
"On more than one occasion. The answer is no."
"Perhaps if I were to approach your father in the proper fashion . . ."
"Go right ahead." Linnet pointed toward a fenced area further down the hill. "You'll find him there."
"Ah," the man repeated. He came over to stand beside her, and she saw that his expression was now properly grave. "A soldier, perhaps?"
"That's the trade that all the men in our barony lay claim to these days – those who are alive."
The man nodded, continuing to stare down the hillside with his sparkling blue eyes. Then he looked her way suddenly, and as though he had indeed received a proper introduction from her father, he said, "My name is Golden."
Linnet was wondering whether, if she wielded a plank against him, this gadfly would leave her alone, but she said with all the politeness her parents had taught her, "I am Linnet."
Golden took the hand she offered him, but his gaze never left her face as he slowly raised her hand and kissed the back of her fingers in a manner that made her body tingle. "Well, fair maiden," he said. "I am deeply sorry to hear of— You are a fair maiden, aren't you? I'm not wasting my time on someone's wife, am I? Not that I'm above that sort of courting if the pickings are lean."
Linnet laughed then, turning her back on the cemetery below. "Fair and sixteen, as the song goes," she replied. "And you?"
"Nineteen and golden, as the same song says." The young man offered her a sweeping bow.
"Is your name really Golden?"
"It's what the girls call me, anyway. I think it's quite apt, don't you?"
"As long as one doesn't look under the surface," Linnet remarked dryly, and she walked past him to the remains of the fallen house.
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