Carnal Knowledge

'He is Richard. You might not know of him, but he came to this town a few years ago.' Gina responded.

'I know of him. He is a good man from all of the gossips I have gathered so you should be on your toes. There will be other eligible women going after him.' Donna said.

If only she knew that Richard and Gina had been the beast with two backs on multiple occasions, she would not have encouraged her husband's niece.

'I shall seek him out and prove myself to him.' Gina smiled and continued to knead the dough in her tray.

While Gina was trying to learn how to woo men at the feet of her uncle's wife, a wine brewer from the tavern barged into the kitchen.

His countenance did not invite people in. He looked angry and out of touch with life but all of that did not matter because he was only a vintner.

Donna knew that vintners only came to her kitchen when there was an important word they needed to pass along.

'Whatever is it? Do you not remember how to knock?' Donna asked.

Although she was a caring woman, her husband, Benedict had taught her to be firm because he knew if she was not, everyone was going to walk over her.

'I did not expect you here, lady Donna. But the child with you has a caller.' He bowed his head.

'If you missed me by a hair, then shall you be rude to my Lord's niece?' Donna pounded the dough on her tray.

Gina only stood there, watching her uncle's wife straighten out the vintner. Gina liked that she commanded respect but that also instilled fear in her.

All she thought about was how easily she could find herself on the receiving end of the straightening.

'It shall not happen again Lady Donna. But the caller for the child is an irritant.' The vintner looked up and shot Gina a look that read disgust.

'Gina, go with him to your caller but do not miss nonmete. It shall be special this afternoon.' Donna went back to kneading her dough.

Gina removed the apron Donna had forced her to put on and followed the vintner to the back of the tavern.

'Why shall this caller not come through the door?' She questioned him.

'When you set eyes on him, question him.' He spat.

The vintner led her to a corner and pointed ahead. When Gina looked at the figure at the end of the passage, she knew it was Richard.

She was happy, mostly because she thought he had finally gotten his senses back and was ready to seek her hand, so she hastened her pace.

'Richard, why shall you not come through the front door like other callers? And how did you find me?' Gina was smiling.

She could not control her happiness at that moment. Although it was short-lived, she had imagined what life as his bride was going to feel like and every bit of it was enticing.

'Your father's worker informed me of your stay here, but I must tell you, I have not come here to seek your hand, hence the sneaking.'

Maybe Gina had made peace with Richard breaking her heart, but she did not feel hurt when he said those words, instead, she hoped he was not there to ask her to stop seeing him.

'Then why have you come all this way? Did you miss me yesterday?' She asked.

'Look here, Gina. Word has come to me about us.' He looked at her with a serious look.

Gina did not understand what he spoke about. Was it not impossible that people should know about them without them sending word out?

'Whatever do you mean? What word shall this be?'

Gina's eyes became teary because in a bid to look at Richard, she looked up and the sun had come out that afternoon.

'Shall we find a better place to speak?' He asked.

'I do not know any other corners in this house. Let us speak as fast as we can.' She raised her hand to shield her eyes.

'Ansley has found out about us, and I want to ask you to keep your mouth shut. You know we shall be betrothed if anyone found out.' Richard reached out and touched her shoulder.

Gina began to weigh her options. She could decide to listen to Richard and wait for fate to marry them or she could tell everyone what had been going on between them. At least she was sure of being his if word got out.

'I have not said anything to Ansley, but I do not know if I can keep our encounter a secret.' She smiled.

'Whatever do you mean, Gina.?' He frowned.

'You shall give me what I want, or I shall tell the town what we have been doing in the shed.' She continued to smile.

'Whatever do you want? This is not my cross alone, you shall be judged too, even more, if word got out.' Richard said but nothing could change Gina's mind.

She was going to go after what she wanted just as her uncle's wife Donna, had advised her.

'I want you to seek my hand and if you do not want that, then you shall not stop our Friday meetings.'

That sounded like a good idea to Richard. He was going to pick the latter and everything was going to be fine but there was only one problem.

Ansley was going to keep a close eye on Richard and one wrong move could expose him with evidence and that was going to be worse than marrying Gina.

'We cannot meet now. Ansley shall be on my tail, but I shall inform you when the coast is clear.' Richard was visibly shaken and that gave Gina an idea.

She could not let the opportunity she had with Richard go with the wind, so she was going to do anything to use it.

'Who can tell when he shall be off your tail? Now that no soul other than ours stands here, we shall have carnal knowledge right here, on my uncle's grounds.' She touched his chest.

Of course, it was the riskiest thing Richard had heard of but if it was going to shut Gina up for a while, then he was going to give it a try.