Chapter 3
“Lars, I want another one. That servant is not what I am looking for. She is mouthy and I can’t take it anymore.”
Lars smiled back at his wife and for some reason it was finally a real one. The idea that a young girl servant was upsetting her was enough to put him in a good mood. She was always so vile to everyone that no one said a word to her. It was about time that someone stood up to the venomous woman that he was attached to.
“I do not see why you are getting so worked up. It is just a servant. I will find something else for her to do if you like.”
Mila brightened. “Yes please. Find something to do with her. Maybe she would be good for the kitchen, strong back and all.”
Lars wasn’t sure what the comment meant, but he was more than happy to meet the one that could bend her out of shape so well, if for no other reason than to thank her. Lars didn’t know what he would do with her or where she could go, but the kitchens always needed more people.
“I will make sure to take care of that before I leave.”
“You are leaving again, so soon?”
He nodded and then took a drink from the cup in front of him.
“For how long?”
“Why does it matter? I know that you have someone here to keep your bed warm at night.”
She had the decency to get a little pink cheeked when he said it. Though she had never tried too hard to hide her contempt for him or her lover, it was something else to hear him finally say it out loud. There was no sense in trying to reason with him. There was no reasoning with Lars and she just shrugged. “I just wanted to know. You of course don’t have to tell me.”
He didn’t seem to be too bothered by her lover. He never had been. There had been a time that she had wished he would stop it, proclaim his love for her and promise to never let her go again. But it had never happened. Mila knew that Lars had never loved her.
“I will be back in a fortnight. The clans are grouping up and it is going to be another battle soon enough. I need to be there.”
“Can’t you send someone else? Why does it always have to be you?”
Lars got up and walked towards his own bed chambers. Every conversation was about what he should or shouldn’t be doing and bringing up her lover had put him in an ill mood. He shouldn’t have said anything to her about it and it had made him wish he hadn’t said a word.
Instead of going to his bed and worrying about what the next clan battles were going to be. He didn’t want to go, but in the same way, he didn’t want to stay, so instead he was always first to volunteer. That part was right, but it had come like second nature as he tried to spend as much time as he could away from his wife. It was becoming time for her to go to the countryside and give him some space. Lars didn’t care if she took her lover with her, as long as she was gone when he got back. He decided that he was going to make sure that she left soon.
Strolling outside of the castle, just outside of the outer walls, he took his time and tried to think of anything else. His eyes took in the moon that seemed to be just out of reach over the cliffs to the east. There was never time to enjoy the views anymore. He stopped there and leaned against the stone wall, closing his eyes for a moment.
He only opened them when he heard a noise coming from behind him. He jerked up and opened his eyes. It was then that he saw the dark woman that his wife hated so much. It was the first time that he had seen her and she was not at all what she had expected. He had been expecting a waif-thin girl, but the servant named Sarah was all woman. She had curves in all of the right places, and even though it was dark, the moonlight made the white in her dress shine brighter and gave him the view that he needed.
“What are you doing out so late?”
Sarah jumped when she heard the voice, not really seeing where it was coming from. When she finally saw who it was, Lars coming out of the shadows, she bowed immediately. “I am sorry, my lord. I didn’t see you there.”
Lars urged her face upwards with his fingers on her chin. “So you are the one that drives my wife so crazy?”
She nodded. “I do not mean to, my lord, but I seem to upset her at every turn. My apologies.”
It didn’t feel sincere and he chuckled a little. “She wants you away from her.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Sarah figured that she would have to leave, a proposition that she was not looking forward to. Sarah found that in a strange way, she actually liked to be there. When he stopped her with a hand on her arm, she looked back at him confused.
“My lord?”
“Where are you going?”
“I am going to leave, my lord.”
“I did not mean that you would leave, Sarah. I meant that you would have to be given something else to do.”
Sarah was more stunned that he knew her name than anything else. Why did it mean so much to her that she hadn’t been invisible to him the whole time? She had passed him in the hallways, never meeting his dark gaze, but there was something about the man that had caught and held her attention. It was just surprising to know that she had maybe caught his attention as well.
She tried to make it seem as if she was not happy to get another assignment, anything really had to be better than waking up his wife and waiting on her all of the time. “Yes, my lord.”
“What do you want to do?”
Sarah met his eyes finally and she could see the glint in them as he looked at her. “I don’t understand, my lord.”
His hand came out and his fingers were pushing the hair out of his face. How did she not understand? “It is a simple question. What would you like to do?”
Lars knew what he would have liked her to do, the attraction to the dark woman swift and surprising. He wasn’t usually attracted to the girls in the castle, but it was harder to deny the one with those almond-shaped eyes looking up at him.
She still hadn’t answered him, not sure what he was talking about, but there was no way that she could think with his hands on her.
“Whatever you want me to do, my lord.”
A fire leapt in his eyes that made her gasp. He moved closer to her and for a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her, but instead pulled away and looked down. “I will put you in the kitchens. Darlee will make sure that you know what your duties are.”
“Yes, my lord.”
He started to walk away, but he then turned around. “Be careful out here, Sarah. A girl like you could bring the devil out of any man.”
She watched him walk away and his words made her shiver inside. She finally took a deep breath when she felt like she could. Why did she feel so out of sorts around him and what did he mean? Sarah wasn’t sure, but she was sure of the fact that she was better off in the kitchens. Ever since she had been sent there and had had to wait on Mila hand and foot, she was done being the woman’s servant. She was rude and too temperamental for Sarah. The idea of getting away from her made her smile, yet it was her body remembering the touch from Lord Lars that made her tremble slightly on the inside.