Page 28 of The Noble Servant

“Is that what you think of me? That I am just a goose girl who shouldn’t know how to read?” Her back was suddenly as straight as any tree, her chin lifted high. But there was also a slight smile on her lips and a sparkle in her eye.

“So you were not a goose girl in Mallin?”

“As a matter of fact, I was not.”

“What were you?” He held his breath while he waited for her to answer.

“I was a daughter and a sister.” Her voice was soft as she looked at her lap again. “And I not only learned to read and write in Mallin, I taught my sisters and many of the servants, including Lenhart. And how did you, a shepherd boy, learn to read and write?”

“You think me only a boy? I am older than you are.”

“How old are you?”

“I am twenty-one. Not a boy.”

“A bit older than a boy, I suppose.” She smiled.

“And how old are you?”

“I am nineteen.”

“Most young women your age are already married. Why are you not?” He watched her face closely.

“Oh, I suppose because ... there was no one in Mallin I wanted to marry.”

“But you are not in Mallin anymore.”

“No, not anymore. And what about you? Why is a twenty-one-year-old man such as you still unmarried?”

“Such as me? Do you think I’m handsome?”

“I might, if I could see your face through all that hair.” She laughed.

“You don’t like my beard?” He rubbed his facial hair and shook his head. “The truth is I’m not ready for marriage.”

“Oh? Why not? Do you not wish to be in love and have children?”

“I don’t believe in marrying for love. People should marry for better reasons than love.”

Magdalen raised her brows, her mouth hanging open, then she made a sound like, “Uh!” and shook her head.

“Besides, I have other plans, for now. Perhaps I shall marry when I’m thirty.”

“What plans do you have? Do you need to study how to be a better shepherd?”

“Something like that.”

She looked askance at him. “I never know whether to believe you.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Something about your eyes. I do not think you are a bad person. But there are some things you aren’t telling me. You are hiding something.”

“That is very strange, because I get the same feeling about you.”

She nodded once, then looked away from him, as if searching the ground. “I cannot very well write a letter without a pen.”

She walked toward her gaggle of geese and picked up a feather off the ground. “This looks like it will make an excellent pen.”