Summer Beyond the Frontier

4 In between

Abigail stared into the depths of his blue eyes, speechless. She had almost heard no such words from anyone other than her brothers and her uncle who never failed to repeatedly hammer those words to her ears. But he died on the battlefield a few years back.

Now, she was staring at another man—a gorgeous man who wasn't her brother or father and not even her uncle who would carefully craft beautiful words to describe her.

She opened her mouth severally but couldn't make out any word while Gordon stared back at her without further saying anything as well.

"You!" she started, feeling her body weaken at every second that passed. His words seem to have such effect on her and they have only met for a few minutes. "You!" she repeated, trying to form a word to say to him but none came through.

"You can hold your tongue for now. You need not say anything to me. Your beauty alone is enough."

Then suddenly, she choked on her spit, coughing. Gordon moved closer to her, patting her back as she coughed.

"Are you okay?" he asked with all genuine feeling.

She held her chest, trying to clear her throat as she tried to wave him off.

"I'm fine!"

Abigail had been in her shell since she was little. Setting traps for prey, catching her meat, hunting for wildlife, trotting her horse and on days she wasn't practising how to wield her sword for defence and an attack, she would be on the field with the farmers.

Her whole life had been knitted with surviving and living while she would live in the path of men, preparing to be fit enough to go to the battlefield with her brothers and father though she was a "lady", a noble one at that.

After her father reclaimed their land from his friend, Lord Westward built his kingdom separate from the outside world, training every day for what it is to come even though it had been twenty years since the last reclamation war broke through, he still found it hard to trust anyone. Since some of his friend's men were still within the kingdom and though, they had sworn allegiance to serve him and him alone, he still prepared for the unforeseen.

As that, he had made sure to prepare all of his children for whatever was to come and Abigail wasn't an exception. Though, her mother was on the contrary to this and as that, she had segregated herself from Lord Westward, her husband for years now in the maiden's quarter, not regarding the running of the kingdom. "Let him do as he wishes" she would often say.

So, Abigail had little to no exposure or if training with other warriors of the land could be referred to as the right exposure.

She had never been faced with a gorgeous man who would make her heart trip in the blink of an eye, that would cause her legs to weaken within a few minutes of encounter or would describe her with carefully chosen words like she was a poem in the creative mind of a writer.

She lacked such exposure.

Now, she had no idea how to deal with it and the fact that he was now a criminal made her lost at a decision to make. After all, he was caught peeping in the maiden's quarter, an offence that was indirectly punishable by death.

Her eyes glided down to the back of his palm and as she lunched forward, with his hand in her hand, she paused in her stance.

"My lady." Lucian's voice cut across her lost mind.

Lucian's eyes quickly walked to her Lady's hand holding a man's hand.

That was the closest she had seen Abigail with a man.

"What are you doing here, my Lady?" Lucian asked with shock still evident on her bright face. The morning sun from the eastern courtyard shone brightly on her face with her hair folded up in a bun, uniform to other court maids.

Abigail's lips stretched in a thin smile while her hand still held Gordon's hand.

"Do I need to ask you the same?"

Abigail knew for a fact that it was quite understandable to see Lucian there in the eastern courtyard. After all, she was a maid. She could have been sent by her mother or trying to get herbs for Abigail's daily tonic which she was meant to get for the court physician. But for Abigail, she had no excuse.

Lucian lowered her gaze to Abigail's hand and raised her eyebrow. Only then did Abigail finally realise.

She then hurriedly dropped Gordon's hand and scurried aside.

"I...uhmm..."

"Isn't that madam's dress? The one you made overnight? You insisted on delivering it to her yourself early this morning," Lucian explained as though Abigail herself wasn't aware of that.

Lucian creased her eyebrow, stepping down from the pavement stairs, down to Abigail. As she moved closer to her, Abigail's heart raced.

Lucian's feet parted through the soft grass that had grown over time due to being deserted, stepping on a few herbs that had been woven with the weeds.

She had no explanation for standing with a man in such a stance and in a place as deserted as the eastern courtyard.

As Lucian got closer, Gordon held Abigail's shoulder, pressing her side to his.

Lucian abruptly stopped in her steps, almost tripping over with shock apparent on her vibrant face while Abigail's cheeks were bloated from redness, her heartbeat racing so fast that it could catch up with a cheetah.

"Wha...who..." Lucian's voice quivered, trailing off in a shaky breath.

It was almost a taboo.

"We were catching up on old times," Gordon replied with a smile while his injured hand pressed against Abigail's shoulder, almost bruising her as well.

They were turned between a melodrama with an instrument from their heartbeat to match the intensified atmosphere.

As if that was not shocking enough, a voice came through, joining the awe-wrecking feeling.

"My love. It was hard to catch the apples."

Jugan's voice came through with a basket full of apples in his hand with some in his other hand. As he joined the intensified aura, realizing the presence of his sister, the apples fell to the ground, rolling over to Abigail's feet.

He was too busy with his doom to realise his sister had a man—a gorgeous, unreal-looking man's arm wrapped around her.

The horror present on Jugan's face matched that on Lucian's face as she turned around to face him.

"What? My love?!" Abigail exclaimed.