Something in her cheerful laughter had touched something inside me that bright summer day and I’d whipped around in the saddle looking for the source.
It wasn’t long before her bright head broke through the brush, captivating me. I’d never seen hair that red before. Like a fine claret touched by candlelight
She’d been chasing a puppy. Her fire red hair wild down her back, the dress she wore a patchwork of hand me downs. But even that couldn’t distract from her natural beauty.
My body had reacted strongly, even before I saw her face or much of her form beneath the loose fitting garment.
Instead I’d been struck by the beauty of the sunlight dancing off her fat curls that were held back with a faded blue ribbon.
But it’s when she noticed my presence and stopped, looking up at me, that my world turned upside down. She was breathtakingly beautiful.
Her eyes were a clear sparkling blue, like rare precious gems. Her lips were well shaped, like a bow, and the softest of pinks.
And her skin, in the oppressive summer heat, had been tinged to a honey gold. It only made the brightness of her eyes stand out more and showed off greatly, her Catalan heritage
In all my travels I’d not seen anyone as astoundingly beautiful and never have since. Her shyness only intrigued me more as she tried to hide from my stare.
“Who are you sir?” She looked down at the ground with her hands clasped as the pup frolicked at her feet playfully. Her voice sent shivers down my spine.
So refined for one of her standing. But more than that, there was a singsong aspect added to the local accent that made one think of exotic things.
“I should be the one asking that question seeing as this is my land.” Her head came up then and she looked at me before looking quickly away again. “I’m Noelle, you must be Master Callan come back from Europe.”
I dismounted and grabbed the reins as I walked towards her. Now she watched me like I was an enigma and I could well imagine the thoughts in her head.
As the daughter of a less than prosperous family, tales of my travels must be fascinating. I knew I was right when even her natural shyness couldn’t hold back the questions.
She’d questioned while I looked my fill. There wasn’t a blemish anywhere on the young girl that I could see, and even her manner was pleasant.
There was none of the artifice so easily found in the young women of my station. No one had trained her to be a coquette in order to catch the eye of a man, or more to the point, a rich husband.
So she was freer than most, more relaxed and open. And I was all the more intrigued. Some of the lingering sadness I’d been carrying after my father’s passing had lifted in her presence there beneath that tree.
I’d found it hard to leave her that first day after satisfying her curiosity. And by the time I left, I’d made myself a promise to one day make it possible for the young girl to see some of the places I’d visited in my travels.
It wasn’t an easy promise to make, and not something I would’ve done had it been anyone else. But I liked the way her eyes lit up with pleasure at my stories. The questions she asked showed that there was genuine interest there.
There was already talk of my younger sister travelling later in the year, and my thinking was that this Noelle would make a perfect companion.
She was bright and lively and though she came from a lower class family, she wasn’t too low born to be a companion to the little miss. And even if she was, as the head of the family if I say it’s okay no one would dare gainsay me.
That had been my first thought, but it wasn’t long, after days spent searching her out for one of our long talks that I started imagining being the one by her side on those trips.
It was weeks later that I noticed her interest. The way her sun kissed skin would blush whenever I found her. The way she always seemed to be waiting for me under the shade of the magnolia tree whenever I happened by.
Her questions had grown less and less as the days went by and it became more like a courtship between a man and his woman before long.
I never went to her without some small token in hand, but she liked most of all, the large blooms from our favorite tree, tied with a ribbon that matched the color of her eyes.
No jewel could ever make her eyes light up the same and her joy in such simplicity only endeared her to me more. It wasn’t long before she was mounted up in front of me on my steed as I made my rounds.