Page 37 of Once Upon a Reckless Rogue

“I don’t have a penny, but I will tell you what I will give you,” he said, picking up a red carnation from a cart and dropping a coin into the hand of the vendor as they passed.

She twirled the stem in her fingers. “It is lovely. Gracias. Did you know this is our national flower?”

“I did not but I do now.”

“Their fragrance always reminds me of nutmeg, but they last a good while in a vase and you can eat the petals.”

“Only you would know that,” he said with a laugh and a shake of his head.

She was coming to crave his laugh. If only she could bottle it up like the essence of a carnation. “Everyone in Spain knows this.”

They left the market and made their way to the bridge that straddled the town over the small river. Stopping to admire the view, Elena rested her head on his shoulder. There were mountains to the right of them and the sea to their left.

“What would you do if you could not go home?” she asked and immediately wished she hadn’t.

“I would swim if I had to,” he replied.

“Do you hate it here so much then?”

“It is not about that. I have come to admire many things about this country. Especially its people, but I have unfinished business that I must address. I cannot think about not returning.”

“Your girl you must look after?”

“My ward, yes. She is not my girl, but I am responsible for her and of course I have my mother and sister to consider. I could not abandon them.”

But you can abandon me?

“It’s my duty. To put them before myself.”

And me.

“This idea of duty means a lot to you?”

He looked out over the vista. “It’s all I’ve ever known. Duty above all,” he said and laughed sadly. “It’s the family motto so there is no getting away from it. It’s probably on my family’s coat of arms.”

“What is this coat of arms? All coats have arms.”

Tomas laughed again, but seeing her face, he stopped. “Forgive me. Someone in my family must have done something to be given a coat of arms. It is the symbols on a shield that represent your name. You have them here in Spain too.”

“I don’t have one.”

“You might but just not know it. To tell you the truth, I don’t know how we got it; it has been in the family for at least four generations, if not longer.”

“Hmm, and such a coat is used for what?”

“Well, nothing. It is just a symbol.”

“And this symbol is what defines you? And you link your duty to it?”

“My duty is to my king and my family, not my family crest.”

She nodded, though she didn’t fully understand the whole coat with arms and the shield. Instead, she said, “We should get back.” The happiness she had felt at the beginning of their walk had faded, and she feared it would fade more if they kept on talking.

They took one more look at the sea and turned back to the inn. The market was closed as they walked the nearly empty cobbled street, but she saw that Tomas was tense and wary of the empty stalls and the long shadows.

Elena suspected that Tomas saw a lot more than normal people. Focused always on potential threats. Pity he had not seen the viper; then they would still have had their donkey and cart. As much as she loved the luxury of a proper bed, she felt there were too many eyes and ears around them. It made her uncomfortable, not that she would say anything to Tomas. He knew better than she did when it came to these kinds of places.

She needed to source more St. Agnes lace seeds to chew or she may end up like the bride to be, and the last thing she needed was a babe in her belly with its father across the sea.