Page 3 of Bound for Their Pleasure

“I think the way you talk is cute.” Dara smiles and tucks her arm through mine again. “My mother will adore you and want to keep you for sure.”

Her mother turns out to be a beta woman with a long plait of golden hair down her back and a plump baby at her hip. “Dara, where on earth did you find this lass?!”

“Freya is Mrs Bramleigh’s granddaughter.”

“Goodness!” Her mother says, bouncing the pink-cheeked baby, who has begun to fuss and drool. “Did you walk all the way over here on your own? Aston, were you a part of this?”

Aston goes to slink off, only to come to a stop as a huge barbarian emerges from the barn beside the house. He wears the same hide pants, with a broad chest and long wild hair. I’m convinced he is the monster my mother spoke of, for his expression is thunderous.

“Inside, girls,” their mother says, ushering us into the neat wooden home. “Let’s get you something to eat and drink. The poor wee lass must be exhausted walking all that way in such a heavy dress.”

Feeling shy, I sit at the table, where I’m given a glass of milk and a thick slice of apple pie. My eyes bulge, and my tummy rumbles noisily. I tuck in with relish.

Through the open cottage door, I can see the gruff barbarian scolding Dara’s brother. “What were you thinking of, lad, fetching her back here?”

“It was naught to do with me,” Aston says all surly.

The big barbarian is red of face and radiates menace.

“Don’t mind it,” Dara says quietly to me. “Aston’s always getting in trouble. They think that because he’s older, he must be wiser. He’s not wiser. I am far cleverer than he is.”

I want to point out that my mother will be cross, and neither of them is clever. Only if they are not clever, then I am not clever either. I have a terrible feeling I will get in trouble… a lot of trouble… and might not be allowed to play outside for a week.

The gruff barbarian enters the home, sharing a look with his wife before turning to us. “Drink up your milk, lasses, and I’ll take your friend back.”

“Oh, can’t Freya stay here a bit?”

“No, Dara. It is already well past noon. Her parents will be worried. What nonsense were you thinking of taking such a tiny lass so far from her home? What were you and Aston doing all the way over there?”

“She has no one to play with,” Dara says. “But she’d like to have a friend.”

“Well, that is very thoughtful of you,” her father says. “But best we speak to her mother afore we go any further with that, hmm?”

“Yes, Papa,” she says.

We finish off our milk and hop down from the chairs. I’m very tired and not looking forward to this walk, although the nervousness in my tummy tells me my mother will be worried, and I want to go home now.

A horse is tethered outside the cottage, and Aston is lugging a saddle over to it.

His father takes the saddle from Aston and sets it into place on the horse.

“Come on, young lass,” he says. “Let’s get you up in the saddle.” Clasping me around the waist, he picks me up and drops me in the saddle. I’ve never ridden on a horse before, for we use a carriage when we travel, and I feel a little nervous until Dara is lifted to sit behind me.

“Hold the pommel, lass,” he says to me. “Old Barley is sure-footed, and you will not fall.”

He takes me home, leading the horse the whole way through the forest until my home with the princess tower comes into view.

My mother is shaking with worry. Everyone has been scouring the lands, fearing the worst.

I feel very bad as she holds me close and thanks Dara’s papa for returning me home safely. She even smiles a little when she hears of how Dara’s mother gave me a glass of milk and a slice of apple pie to tide me over for the journey back.

Then she surprises me and agrees that Dara and I may be friends.

* * *

Aston

It is late by the time my father returns from taking Freya home, and I am waiting for him by the barn so I can help him with the horse.

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