A Confession 2
Her body came alive with pleasure. It was just a delicate touch that did not even suit a man like him who handles swords and spears more than a woman. Very gently he disentangled a stray lock of her hair that interfered with the knot.
Was it her imagination, or did he pass that strand through his fingers before releasing it?
Her body had betrayed her so many times in his presence. The way her stomach churn and heat gushed to the pit of her stomach, would make her stupid.
She could not afford making mistakes at this juncture.
"I will guide you." he did not reply. But his heated gaze and the way his Adam apple moved speak volumes of the current that passed through his body too.
If he wanted her to say that, she would. But he had to ask her for that. She stared at his face waiting. His jaw clenched but he did not reply.
"Lenhart."
"At my pleasure." he pointed at the door with his chin. She gulped the rejected thought through her belly. It was not his love that she had vied for. It was the freedom he would offer her, his trust.
She led him inside another door attached to the small hut. The air inside was full of cow dung and lime and rotted leaves.
"It had been a week since someone had tended to this place." but it did not matter. The rotten leaves were better compost for the flowers. The bees would come as long as flowers bloom. The bases of the hives had been covered by the dung too. They were octagonal in shape and stacked closer. Only with a small hole to pass air and look at the interior.
"We have enough wax provided by them that we need not buy candles and ink. It even helped the physician in making the balms." she offered him as he took a view to the stacks.
There was a great amount of wax inside that brought a gasp from him.
"It could be used on fabrics as water proofing too. You will never have enough of it. I have never seen so many combs in one place, even in the royal gardens." her chest swelled at that.
Her husband had said that only the poor could think of saving money for candles. He could expect no better than her. But here, another man believed that it was not so wasteful after all.
"We had more last month. I have a stock double as this available. But we never needed so much so I have planned to distribute it." but she did not know to whom. It was her hard work. She didn't want to give it to the maids who insult her and help her husband in beating her.
But even they are gone now. He misunderstood her silence.
"You can sell it to me. I will take all of it in the amount you wished." she shook her head.
"It is not the money I need. We both know that I would never be able to spend it if my husband would be proven guilty. I will never visit the market again. So take all of them if you need. This place is not counted in the estate anyway. They would never find that something was missing." the meaning of her words started to register slowly.
No one in the estate knew there was a beehive where she was collecting wax. What had she told the staff then? Her husband! It was an achievement I was very able to make. Why did she hide it?
The way she had conversed today had left him an inkling. But he did not want to accept it. Accepting it would prove that she had made a wrong choice. Did foolishness by leaving him alone for a man who had never treated her well.
But what would he achieve from that? Whether she was treated well or not was not his concern. He was here for a task and he must handle it well.
"I do not take things for free, my lady. Either anyone knows about it or not it would not make any difference." She took a step closer to the boy she had fallen in love with two years ago. But now he was trapped in the body of a man she must fear.
"There is something I need from you. But I am afraid these hives or the wax would not be enough compensation." his eyes darkened at once. The way his lips curved would have left her humiliated if not for the desperation she felt now.
Pride! Where was the place of it in her condition. If he would ask her to beg on her knees, she would do it without a hint of remorse.
"Showing your true colors finally?" he raised a brow, the smile on his face looked so satisfactorily as if he knew her intention from the start.
She ignored the pain in her chest as she nodded.
"I have no other choice. Everything is at stake." She was confused and a low chuckle escaped his lips. He took a step closer instead of creating distance.
"And you are offering yourself to gain that back? Let me guess, you are going to spend time here with me in exchange for your freedom?" her eyes widened at once. He thought that she was a whore? She would have spent time with him only if he had asked, she did not need to get paid for it. Even if the compensation was her freedom.
She closed her mouth and ignored the sour taste filling it.
"I apologize, that was not the offer I had planned." he paused, waiting for her to explain as if he could not think of anything else she could offer.
"I have information that you need about my husband. In exchange, I want you to hear my truth and investigate it. If you find it right, you will help me in saving my family. I do not care what happens to me afterwards."