A Daughter's Love - Book 2 The Frencolian Chronicles (complete)

Chapter Twenty

Jobyna opened her eyes to view Mavis' disappearing bulk. I's been found! she thought, smiling, I's still all warm inside. Then, frowning, I's goin' to heaven when I die ...

A few moments later, the eager girl was out of bed, fumbling around to find her clothes. When dressed, she hurried downstairs and out to the kitchen.

The cook and two slaves who were preparing breakfast, stared at Jobyna in surprise but said nothing as she poured some milk into a bowl and drank it. Skipping out into the back porch, Jobyna pulled on her riding boots. As she made her way through the scullery, she saw Sabin, waking himself up by washing his face in freshly drawn well water.

Climbing to stand on a high work bench, she took a cresset from the wall, attached it to a stave, and would have skipped out to the stables had Sabin not stood in her way.

"It's good to see you looking so much better, Miss Jobyna. Where would you be going, it still being dark?" Sabin asked as he grasped the stave.

"I have to go an' see Shepherd John. But I'll be back a'fore breakfast, if I takes Rainbow."

She smiled at Sabin, adding, "I has ... I has to take care of ... of ... my matters." With that, she let the torch go and ducked under Sabin's arm. Staring briefly as she ran off, he hurried back to tell his mother that he was following the lass, to make sure she kept safe.

"When the master rises, he will want to know where she is," Sabin told Mavis.

Mavis expected the baron and baroness to appear at any moment, and she felt certain they would not like their daughter going riding. "The Master'll be mad that y' did not hinder her! But meybe, I hope, ye'll be back a'fore he rises. They'se were up over half the night, sitting by her bed."

Mavis waved her son away, calling, "Off 'y go and don't let 'er come t' any harm."

Jobyna unbolted the back gate herself. Seated on Rainbow's back, she was about the same height as the average man. Moving into the archway, she wound the handle, which controlled the chains to let down the narrow bridge. She knew that it had been secured due to the king's presence in the manor house.

The grinding chains startled the sleepy guards and they hurried down the stairs from the gate house. One of them grabbed a torch from the wall.

"Miss Jobyna! It's good to see you're well! What're you doing, going out at this hour?" Felix grasped the reins of her horse. "Does your father know?"

"I's just going to see Shepherd John!" Jobyna tried to wrench the reins from the captain's hands. "An' if you don't let me go, then I won't be back for breakfast. Please."

Seeing he was unrelenting, she looked back towards the stables, "Look, Sabin's coming with me."

As Felix's attention was distracted by the sound of approaching horse-hooves, Jobyna snatched the reins and quickly urged the horse across the narrow bridge.

Sabin had selected a young gelding and was able to keep up with the lass with ease. However, he was greatly concerned for his charge when she urged the mare into a gallop, forcing the mount to move as fast as it could, up the uneven slope.

Dawn painted the sky with golden light behind them as they approached the shepherd's cottage. Jobyna had filled her lungs with the fresh morning air and her cheeks were flushed from the vigorous ride.

Leaving Rainbow in Sabin's care, she headed towards the milking shed. The ewes were always milked before breakfast and as she had expected, the shepherd and his two children were working on the last three. Their mother would be cooking breakfast.