Chapter 2
I first met Rowan Hale in December of the previous year.
There were discrepancies in the ledgers of my family's country estate outside the capital, and my mother had sent me to audit them.
A blizzard was raging that day. As my carriage navigated the mountain road, the driver suddenly cried out.
"My Lady! There's a man lying by the road!"
I lifted the carriage curtain and saw a young man collapsed in the snow. The frost beneath him was stained crimson.
A few pheasants and hares he had hunted were scattered around him, along with a snapped hunting bow.
"Stop the carriage," I said instinctively.
Amy grabbed my arm in a panic.
"My Lady, we're far from the village. What if he's a bandit?"
But pity won out. I had the driver load him into the carriage and take him to the nearest doctor.
The doctor said he had been attacked by wolves and was lucky to be alive.
He was unconscious for three full days. When he finally woke, I was sitting by his bed.
He was pale, his eyes locking onto mine.
"You... you saved me?" his voice was rough, like gravel.
I handed him a bowl of medicine.
"I happened to be passing by."
"What's your name? Where do you live? I'll have someone notify your family."
He took the bowl but didn't drink.
"Rowan Hale. I keep the game in these woods. I don't have anyone."
I paused.
He downed the bitter medicine in one gulp, then pulled a filthy handkerchief from his coat.
He unfolded it layer by layer, revealing a few meager silver coins.
"I'll pay you back for the doctor."
Looking at that pitiful handful of silver in his palm, a strange ache tugged at my heart.
"Keep it. Just focus on recovering."
He was stubborn. "I have to. Rowan Hale never leaves a debt unpaid."
Once his wounds healed, he really did start paying back the favor, little by little.
At first, he would drop off game or foraged goods at the gates of the country estate every few days. A wild hare, two pheasants, neatly tied with hemp rope.
When the estate manager told me, I frowned slightly.
"Accept them for now and send them to the kitchens. There's no need to trample on his pride."
I had grown up in the lap of luxury. I had no interest in rustic food.
It wasn't because of his low birth; I was simply surrounded by exquisite things from the moment I was born. The young noblemen in the capital gifted me newly crafted brooches from renowned jewelers or rare, limited-edition poetry collections.
Rowan's dead hares hardly qualified as elegant gifts.
But he kept bringing them.
Somehow, he found out I loved poetry, and he actually started teaching himself to read.
Eventually, tucked among the hunted game, there would be a crumpled, crooked little note, awkwardly bearing a copied line of a love poem.
Amy would always wrinkle her nose and laugh.
"Look, My Lady, he copied another one. His handwriting looks like a fence blown over by the wind."
I thought the handwriting was atrocious too, but for some reason, I kept the notes.
Half a year later, I was taking a walk alone near the country estate and unknowingly wandered to the edge of the woods.
Three drunk men reeking of cheap ale stumbled out of the brush.
"Well, well, where did this pretty little thing come from?"
The leader, a broad-faced man, looked me up and down.
My voice trembled. "What do you want?"
He stepped closer with a lecherous grin. "Just to play for a bit."
I turned to run, but another man blocked my path.
"Help!" I screamed, my hand already dropping to the small dagger at my waist.
If there was truly no escape, I was going to make at least one of them bleed.
Just as a filthy hand reached for my sleeve, an arrow tore through the air, grazing the man's ear and burying itself in the tree trunk beside him.
Rowan burst from the trees, a longbow in hand. His eyes were as vicious as a wolf's.
"Walk away, or the next one goes through your throat."
Seeing he wasn't someone to mess with, the three drunks cursed and fled.
My legs gave out. Rowan caught me before I hit the ground.
"You're safe now."
That was the first time I truly looked at him.
Compared to half a year ago, the boyishness in his face had faded, replaced by rugged strength.
"Why... why are you here?" I was still shaking.
He looked away. "I saw you walking toward the woods alone. I was worried. If I've offended you, I won't do it again."
Like a fool, I let him in.
After that, I no longer barred him from entering the country estate. Time and time again, I was the one who allowed him to get closer.
"My Lady, do you think he's..." Amy would trail off.
I knew what she wanted to say.
But I was already engaged.
Julian Cavendish was the eldest son and lawful heir to the Marquis of Cavendish.
Our families were an equal match. Since I was a child, it was an unspoken agreement that we would marry.
Even so, I fell in love with Rowan.