He cleared his throat. “By lettin’ my gaze—” he paused for a deep breath, “—or my smile linger. If I…ehm show her attention, touch her hand.” He looked as if he wanted to crawl out of his skin. “Sometimes I dinna have to do anythin’ at all. They like to give me things.”
She stared at him, not knowing what to say. It took her a moment to realize he was serious. She fixed her gaze on his dark, golden hair falling over his temple, and then onto his mouth, and his chin. He certainly was handsome. She could understand why women wanted to get to know him better—but they gave him food without coin?
She slanted her gaze on him and then smiled and shook her head.
“What?” he asked. “Say what ye would.”
“You enjoy it.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “No, I dinna like bein’ given food at no cost when there are children ootside the doors starvin’.”
She wanted to say something, but what? “Aye,” she finally said in a low voice. “I agree.” There was more inside she wanted to say, but she held her tongue. She wouldn’t flirt with him, no matter how wonderful she thought he was.
“The thing is…” he began slowly, in a soft, deep tone that made her bones feel a little soft, “…people dinna realize that if they find me so pleasin’ on the eyes then mayhap others do as well. And the same compliments over and over again have become empty.”
“Hmm.” Her heart banged rapidly and she felt lightheaded. Was he telling the truth? Was he so vain that he thought everyone considered him so delightful? She knew Lucifer had been a beautiful angel before his fall. Mother taught all the novices that was why beautiful men, or even women, could not be trusted.
Silene didn’t believe it. That would mean the prioress and all the sisters were not godly. Of course, she’d never seen anyone as handsome as Captain Galeren. She prayed he wasn’t beguiling her.
“I know how that must have sounded,” he said after she remained quiet. “But I do hear it often. Even at my childhood home I am called Galeren the Bonny.”
“Truly?” she asked on the verge of another smile. She believed that all the compliments didn’t please him. And that pleased her.
“Aye,” he replied. “Everyone always has an instant opinion of me—whether good or bad.”
“Your men know who you are.”
He smiled. “Aye, but ye know what I speak is true. Surely ye hear the same.”
“Me?” She laughed. “Hear what?”
“That ye are beautiful,” he said and deliberately walked away.
Had she heard him right? Did he say she was beautiful? No. She would have laughed if she didn’t want to cry. She remembered hearing her father say she was no beauty and no man would likely want her anyway, just before her parents gave her up to God. She knew there was a different kind of beauty, the kind that comes from within. Mother had told her she possessed that kind. Is that what the captain saw? But what had she done to cause him to say such a thing?
She lifted her hand to the russet waves on her head and thought about it while the captain reached a vendor selling oils and spices. He left Silene to go inside.
From her vantage point, she could see him speaking to a pretty maiden, who was either the vendor or the vendor’s daughter. She watched the woman smile at him and touch her fingers to her hair. He offered the maiden a slow, blatantly sensual smile, exposing that dimple that somehow made him even more handsome. He laughed at something his admirer said and then leaned over the table separating them, took her hand in his, and kissed it. A few more words and well-timed smiles later, he left with a sack of goods over his shoulder.
It was the same at almost every vendor they visited. They all wanted to give him free goods. And today, he accepted.
It was all for the children’s mother.
Silene knew in that moment that if she were blind and had never seen his face, she would consider him the most beautiful man she’d ever met.
They returned to the cottage and met up with Morgann. The children ran out to greet them, eager to look inside the bags. They stepped inside and into a small kitchen, lit by the sun through a wide un-shuttered window and a dying fire in the hearth. The table was bare. Shelves stacked around it held vessels of clay, some now filled, thanks to the captain, with grain.
They gave Katherine the rest, placing the bags on the table. Apples rolled out of one and three little hands reached for them.
Crunching could be heard from all around. It made Silene content to see them fed.
“Come, I have a gift for you,” the children’s mother said, taking her hand and leading her away.
“Oh, no. I could not.”
“You must, else I could not lay down my head and sleep at night. I am a dressmaker. I have the perfect gown for you! By looking at you, I believe ’twill fit.”
“But I have no reason to wear a gown,” Silene insisted.