Medieval Love - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Bella’s POV

I walked in to the house after giving Stina a full grooming session. The most delicious aroma floated towards me from the kitchen. I tromped up the porch, wiping my muddy boots on the mat before walking in.

Mmmm, mom’s baking again, I thought. I walked into the kitchen, washed my hands and spotted a bowl of the absolutely most delicious chocolate chip chocolate cake batter, which would turn out to be the most scrumptious, mouth watering, irresistible cake you would ever taste. So of course I had to taste it, you know. Just to make sure that it was as good as it usually was. I dipped my finger in and scooped up the thick, creamy, rich batter and savored it.

“Bella,” my mom called,. I whipped my finger out of my mouth and put on my ‘innocent’ face. ”here you are!” she said walking into the kitchen, her face was slightly flushed and her eyes held a strange glow. “Where have you been!” she scolded rather than asked, “Go upstairs and clean yourself up, put on your dinner dress and then come down to help me lay the table. We have guests coming tonight.” she said all excited.

My heart dropped at the mention of dinner dress. How I hated those voluminous dress. All the frilly bits and the petticoats. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind wearing dresses but just the simple and stylish ones. There were occasions where I really liked wearing dresses. But never the dinner ones.

Luckily for me though, I along with my sisters had inherited a good fashion sense, but mine differed from theirs. I became a budding seamstress from altering the cumbersome dresses to make them less fluffed up. My motto was “simple style outdoes the overdone”. That didn’t mean I stopped thing them but they at least became bearable. I tromped up the stairs and went to my sisters’ room. I found them in their petticoats, going through their wardrobes. There where dresses and hangers lying on almost every available surface. As usual they were bickering like little babies.

“Hem, hem” I coughed to get their attention “who is coming over for dinner and why is everyone in a huff?”

“Gino!” Rachel squealed.

“And the Bachelli’s,” added Lucy.

Thing clicked. I now understood my mom’s behavior. The only thing that can make her that excited is an eligible young man. My heart sank. I was hoping that we would have intelligent guests and that we would have intellectual conversations. But I knew from previous experiences that my mom would be talking about and praising the twins the whole night. Chatting up the young man, finding out the advantages and disadvantages in a marriage with one of the twins (she had given up on me loooong time ago) and generally acting like the average mother hen.

I left the twins and walked dejectedly to my room, heated myself a hot bath and promptly forgot all about the upcoming dinner while soaking in the hot water and steam. I then got dressed and went down to help my mom.

“Lay the table with the set which I got from your grandmother, please. Then you can take out the cutlery and start polishing it.” she ordered.

As usual, the twins would take so long to get ready, that I would be finished getting the dinner room smart and ready for the guests, before they were done.
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Gino’s POV

I was dressed in a penguin suit as I called it. Black pants, shoes and coat, with a white shirt and a bowtie. I was wondering about the girl. Who was she? Had I met her before? Would I recognise her if I met her now? My mind turned to other things as I sat in the living room waiting for the doctor and his wife to get ready.

Back at home, I had always looked forward to these dinners being assured there would always be good female company. My mother had always called me a ladies man as I thrived in female company, but for once I was looking at an evening of female company with trepidation. It wasn’t that they were boring or dull. The twins just had that uneducated aura which made me wrinkle my nose at the thought. The majority of the ladies I had met (excluding this morning), had learned Latin, were well read and understood the way businesses were run, as well as all the things the ladies of today are expected to know.

“Hem, hem.” I looked up, startled out of my reverie. Dr Bachelli was standing in front of me. “Let’s go hitch the horses to the wagon. The Do Sillvors don’t live close enough to walk.”

We went to the barn. I patted my pure-black mare, Honour. She was a descendent of the finest warhorses of all times with an endurance champion as a dam. She was given to me, as a foal, for my 13th birthday and I had to raise and train her. There were two other horses in the stable area of the barn and the doctor introduced them as Liro and Lora, both geldings who were long past their working days and were given to him for light exercise. Both were dun (beige) with black manes and tails. The only difference was that one had a black muzzle.

We led them outside and hitched them to the covered wagon and gave each a handful of oats.

“Gino,” Dr Bachelli asked after a moments thought, “do you know how to drive (the wagon)?” I answered that I couldn’t. “Let’s start, I’ll teach you until My Lady is ready to go.”
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Quite a time later, we arrived at the Do Sillvors’ farm. We were greeted by Mr Do Sillvor and went to stable the horses while the doctor’s wife went inside.

While giving the two horses a quick rubdown I listened to the two men chatter. Only as I realised that they were discussing something to do with me did I really pay attention to what they were saying.

“- because doctors and vets need to know a lot of similar things, for example herb lore. So if you need other hand, I’m sure he would like to help out as he is also a good horseman and one or other time in the next three months needs to experience labour even if it isn’t human.”

“Hmm, I’ll have to ask her about that as you know how she hates people making decisions for her. Back to what you were saying earlier.”

“Oh, ya. Gino, come here please.” the doctor beckoned me over. Luckily I had just finished with the horses. I gave Liro a pat on the neck and walked over to where the two men where standing.

“Yes?” I asked politely.

“The doctor got me very interested in your magnificent mare. What about her breeding?”

“Well, her grandsire was Royalshadow-“

“Wow! She has true blue blood. Must have cost your parents a fortune buying a horse descended from the King’s warhorse!” I smiled knowingly. “Have you tried racing her cross-country?”

“No.” I lied. Well I had to. Even if I thought people might not recognise the breeding of my horse, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t easily find out that the Lord’ son had won the Nationals for 3 consecutive years on a black mare, and figure out my real identity. I had begun to enjoy people’s ignorance of my heritage.

“Well, there is our annual cross-country race in three weeks if you think your horse is fit enough you are welcome to come and race.”

“Thank you that would be fun.” I answered graciously my mind already made up to do it.

We all trooped outside, washed our hands and straightened our suits before walking up the porch and inside.

“Marie!” John Do Sillvor called and four females entered the entrance hall. Mrs Bachelli, the twins and a strange woman. She had blue eyes though deeper than the twins’ with tawny hair which could have been blond when she was younger.

“This is my wife, Marie. Marie, this is the doctor’s apprentice, Gino”

“Pleased to meet you.” I murmured taking her offered hand and pressed it to my lips. I did the same with the twins and to my annoyance they tittered. Geesh, it is called manners not preference.

“Bells.” John said loudly in a warning voice.
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Bella’s POV

I was cleaning up in the kitchen hoping to miss the introductions when my father called. Oh great I thought my dad knows me too well. I took off my pinafore and smoothed my skirts before walking into the hall.

There was a stranger there who I immediately took to be Gino. I saw his eyes widen as he saw me. I’m not a monster you know. You can stop looking at me so weirdly, freak. I thought.

My dad made the necessary introductions and I had to resist the urge to spite him for being an eligible young man and refusing to give him my hand but I knew that my dad would be disappointed and he was one of the few adults whose opinions I respected.

Gino’s POV

I saw a young lady enter through the doorway. She was wearing an emerald dress which emphasized her thin waist and slender figure, making the twins in particular, look over-dressed. She had green eyes and a sprinkle of freckles on her nose. Her shoulder-length brown hair held a trace of red and was let loose, framing her face.

She’s the one! My heart said over and over. I suddenly felt self-conscious as I gently kissed her delicate hand.