Aristocrat | ✓

CHAPTER TEN

     The next day, Lord Evenus took his friends out hunting. I accompanied them and watched from a safe spot as they aimed at hare and deer. The lady that came with the count was a good shot. The arrows that flew from her bow hadn't missed an animal yet. We had left the castle earlier in the afternoon, and now the evening was nearing its end. Troy hadn't come with us because Lord Evenus said he would be distracted by Lady Agnes' weapons and would chase her arrows like a stick.

     I chuckled as I helped the lord into his doublet this morning, sure that he was drawing that decision from a previous encounter. I tried to imagine Troy chasing after arrows and the thought had amused me.

     "If you kill any more of them, we won't be able to carry the weight," The Count told his daughter, making her roll her eyes as she put away her bow and got up from the dirt. Like the two men, the Lady was in breeches and a doublet, with the exception of the flowery hose and ribbons tied around her slim waist.

     "Skinning the animals is the interesting part," Agnes said, walking over to retrieve the dead rabbit under the shrub a distance away. "Shooting them is a little too easy, don't you think?" Agnes said, walking back over to her father before dropping the dead animal in the sack in front of her.

     "No, we leave that to the servants. I like to give out the hides if I can. I have no use for them," Lord Evenus said. "Besides, shooting is the sport," he added, looking over to me. He smiled, and I blinked, tearing my eyes away from him. He'd been giving me looks throughout their hunting game, and I feel that's one of the reasons he lagged behind the Count. He could have made it to second place behind the Lady if he had been more focused. No one could take first from Agnes, she was a killing machine.

     "You can bother the boy later," Lady Agnes said, and I looked up just in time to see her giving his shoulder a punch. It was strange to see the two stand side by side. Agnes was the exact opposite of what I'd thought of her to be when I had felt that the Lord might be courting her.

     "It's even easier with a gun. Are you two even amused by hunting at all?" Lady Agnes asked, looking from her father to Lord Evenus before rolling her eyes.

     "Agnes likes to act like a man in all aspects..." the count trailed as I walked towards them to get the bag. "Even in bad habits like boosting and drinking."

     I felt bile come up my throat as I tied the sack. Flies had already started looming on the bloodstains, and the pool of red made by the flesh hanging off the side of the bag. I still had to find a way to stuff the two baby deer that had been shot down into individual bags. We had come with four horses, and one was Bessa who was old and couldn't carry much weight.

     "I boast because I have cause to, and I also hold my beer very well, thank you," Agnes said, laughing with her father.

     Lord Evenus didn't seem amused by the banter, he leaned against a tree, sipping water from the bottle be had brought with him. He tucked it away soon, looking over at the Count and his young daughter before pulling his black hood over his head. My heart skipped a beat at that. I had to look away and swallow the spit that had built up at the back of my mouth. He looked exactly like this when he had seen me in the snow three years ago—black breaches, red doublet and hood cap that covered everything but his mouth and roman nose.

     "Do you need some covering?" The Lord had asked me by the crossroads that winter three years ago. "I don't need all of these, you can have one," he had said, before letting me look through the bag he was carrying. I had picked a deer's hide that day, and my mother had used it to make a little coat for my younger sister.

     I was pulled out of my memory by a high-pitched whistle that came from the Lady. I looked up to find the trio walking to the horses they had tied to tree barks by leases. I hurried to stuff the deer into the remaining sacks before tying up all for bags. I was soon relieved from my duty by Lady Agnes and Lord Evenus who hoisted the tied sacks and walked over to the horses with them. Agnes took the two sacks with deer, Lord Evenus and the count took a sack of small game each.