Despite her good intentions, she could not fully repress a grimace when she sat down on the bedding he had laid out for her. There was no softness despite the thick bottom blanket and the grass. Men did this a lot, she reminded herself, and she would do her best to endure it. She forced herself not to think about what might be crawling through the grass beneath her bedding and watched him prepare a fire.
“Shall I collect some wood? One thing I do know is what is good for burning. Papa used to have us sit out at night so he could teach us about the stars and we would often make a fire even though the light from it could sometimes make seeing the stars a little difficult. At least you could hurry back to it when you got cold, though.”
“A supply of wood would be helpful.”
Bened watched her wander off and held his smile inside until she was out of sight. She did not like being ignorant of sleeping outside and all it entailed. He suspected she was one who did not like being ignorant about anything. The talks in which she told him about her father, even her brother, revealed two very intelligent men with a greed for knowledge, who did not exclude her from that part of their lives.
She had had a good family and her aunt had taken one of the biggest pieces away already and was aiming for the rest. It had to hurt yet she had held strong through each new discovery about the depth of the betrayal of one of her own. What he did not understand was how, with so many smart people in the family, no one had noticed the adder in their midst. All he could think of was that, they themselves being incapable of such a thing, they had never considered the woman’s envy and anger a true threat to their very lives. Such na?veté had buried too many people.
He was pleased when the wood she brought back proved her claim that she knew what was good for burning. Then he caught sight of the plants she carried. “What are those?”
“Medicinal plants.” She hurried to her bag, dug around inside, and pulled out several little cloth bags into which she put the plants. “They have gone to seed so I am hoping if I can get them home, I can plant them in the garden. I hesitated for a bit as I rather like wandering through the woods hunting for plants I need and then preparing them but there are so many, I will still be doing that a lot.”
“There are enough wooded areas near your home for that to be useful?”
“Yes. When my father discovered my interest in plants, especially herbs and medicinal ones, he told the ones who care for the lawns and all, to stop clearing out around the trees that surrounded us, to let it go wild. He said we had all the lawn we needed so why use so much time to try to make a wooded area look so prim. They did and now we have quite a few acres that have gone back to what they should be. Papa was especially pleased when he discovered such a thing also provided us with wild mushrooms. That required a great deal of study as some of the ones that are poison look a lot like the ones that are good.” She carefully tucked the little bags back into her satchel.
“I think your interest in herbs and plants is a bit more than a hobby,” he teased.
“I will confess that I can become quite lost in coming up with a new, useful potion, lotion, or tisane. My father and brother would bring me books or even plants when they traveled. Sad to say, not all the plants took as they came from far warmer places but the books were often a wonder.”
“So you know more than one language.” He watched her blush and look uneasy.
“I do know several.”
“Do you know the Welsh tongue?”
“No, I fear not although I do know a little Scottish Gaelic. Mama was a Scot.”
He nodded. “Another language too few are using anymore.” He set up a roasting spit and then sat back. “I need to go ahunting for our meal. I have seen the signs that there a lot of rabbits about so I should not be away long. Anything makes you uneasy, just let out a hearty scream. That sound carries far and wide in areas like this.”
“I do not suppose you saw any signs of pheasant or quail.”
He laughed. “Nay, but I will be quick to grab one if I see one. Roasted rabbit is not bad.”
“Oh, I know that, although we usually have it in a stew or some kind of meat pie.”
“They are more tender that way.” He stood up and fetched his rifle, carefully reloading it. “I actually prefer to hunt rabbit with bow and arrow but do not carry such a weapon around with me.”
“Dead is dead when it concerns a rabbit, I would think.”
“True. It is just that the arrow is easier to remove and makes no sound. The sound of a rifle shot carries far. Remember, as loud as you can make it, scream if you think there is any threat near at hand.”
“I will.”
She watched him walk away and the moment he was out of sight she began to feel uneasy. When she wandered the woods it was in the daytime with the full knowledge that her home was but a fast run away through the trees. Most of the time, she was able to keep it in sight as she wandered. She had never been alone in a strange stretch of woodland, far from anyone she knew, with night coming on. Primrose sternly told herself to find her backbone and stop fretting, and then turned her mind to what she would do with the seeds she had just collected.
Chapter Six