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It was not even midday when they reached the other shore. Lord Rosenkranz had gone out to find a driver that was willing to take them the rest of the way. Anna and Joana were waiting for him in an inn.
“Do you mind if we make it a long day?” Lord Rosenkranz said, when he returned to get them. “I’d like to reach Jelling before nightfall.”
“No, it’s fine,” Anna said, even though she dreaded having to sit in the carriage an entire day. Her body was sore after travelling for several days, and she would like a day to rest and relax. But she also needed to go home. She needed to show herself at the estate and make the people there know that she was their new mistress.
Anna tried to sleep in the carriage, but it was impossible. It was hot and humid and even though the windows of the carriage were wide open without the curtain and shutters in front of them, the air was still horribly still. Anna looked out the window but could not see Lord Rosenkranz. He had to be riding in front of the carriage.
She closed the curtains, but left the shutters open to at least let in some air. Then she took off her cloak and her shoes. She reached under her dress and untied her the knots just below her knees that were holding up her stockings. She pulled both stockings off, then she loosened the strings holding the top of her dress.
She sighed with relief, leaned back, put her feet on the other seat of the carriage and found a position that allowed her to sit comfortably even though the carriage would often sway from side to side. Anna closed her eyes and soon dozed off due to the heat.
Anna woke up by someone saying:
“I’m sorry, Lady Harold,” and then quickly shutting the door.
Lord Rosenkranz! He had opened the door to the carriage for some reason. Anna looked down herself and saw that her dress had slid up and most of her bare legs was visible. She had been sitting with her legs spread widely with her feet on each wall of the carriage since it gave her the best support – and allowed air to flow up under her dress.
She blushed when she realized how much of her body Lord Rosenkranz had just seen.
“You should have knocked!” Anna said annoyed as she pulled on her stockings again and tied them.
“I did,” Lord Rosenkranz said from the other side of the door. He sounded flustered. “I wanted to wake you to hear whether you wanted some lunch.”
Anna did not answer right away but put on her shoes as well. Many noble women would not be able to dress themselves, but having lived in the convent for two years, Anna was used to handling those tasks herself.
“I do want lunch,” she said a little less annoyed. Apparently, she had been sleeping far more soundly than she had thought.
Lord Rosenkranz did not answer. Anna tightened the strings at the front of her dress, to make it sit properly again. She buttoned the buckle of her cloak, but let it hang loosely down her back from her shoulders. She did not need the heat from it.
She opened the door of the carriage and found that Lord Rosenkranz was still standing outside of the carriage with his back to it. Anna cleared her throat and he turned around.
If she had had any doubts about how much of her body, he had seen, she could tell by his red cheeks and unwillingness to meet her eyes, that he had seen a lot. Only peasant women let their bodies show like that, but in her defense, she had thought herself to be alone and undisturbed.
Lord Rosenkranz held out his hand. Anna took it and let him help her out the carriage.
“It’s terribly hot today,” Anna said as they proceeded into the tap room.
“It is,” Lord Rosenkranz said.
They were seated inside where it was much cooler. Anna could not help but sigh with relief when she sat down.
“I’m sorry, that we can only stay here a short while,” Lord Rosenkranz said, as he sat down opposite her. Anna nodded.
They were each served a bowl of vegetable soup. Even though Anna was hungry, there was no way that she could eat the hot soup right now. She looked at the food and stirred it with her spoon, fishing up a few vegetables and eating them.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Lord Rosenkranz said. He had already eaten half his portion.
“Yes, but... the soup is hot,” Anna said.
“That’s usually how soup is. In fact, I think that I would complain, if the soup wasn’t,” Lord Rosenkranz said with a slight smile around his lips.
Anna smiled back. He seemed to be a bit flustered. Anna wondered whether it was the sight of her legs, that had made him so. If she was right, and he had had a crush on her for years, he had to have fantasized about her... hadn’t he? At least she had imagined being with Valdemar before the two of them had slept together.
There was something intimidating about being naked inside someone else’s mind... and something tantalizing about it too. No, it had to be the heat, Anna told herself. And the fact, that she had not slept with a man in more than two years.
Despite the fact that she could not imagine sleeping with anyone other than Valdemar, there had to be something purely bodily about it too, since she was craving it from time to time. It had been easy to suppress at the convent, but she felt uncertain how she would cope with it, living on her own estate. There were not strict rules for women like her. She could take a lover if she wanted to. If only she was discreet.
Anna bit her lip, as she watched Lord Rosenkranz call a servant over and ordered bread and fish for Anna instead. She smiled gratefully.
“I have to admit, that I haven’t travelled in a carriage for so long, that I’ve forgotten that they get that hot,” Lord Rosenkranz said.
“Isn’t it just as hot riding? You’re exposed to the sun all the time,” Anna said to take her mind off what he had seen. She was brought her food, that she ate with much greater appetite.
“Yes, but there’s also the wind. When you’re riding, the wind rushes through your clothes and soothes you,” Lord Rosenkranz said and looked at Anna’s clothes – or perhaps what was visible of her body under it. He certainly blushed at least.
“I’m sorry, I spoke out of line. But you get the idea,” he said and looked at his plate. “Do you mind if I eat your soup?”
“No, not at all,” Anna said and pushed the bowl of soup in front of him.
They ate in silence for a while. Normally the silence between them would not bother Anna, but now she felt it was loaded with something. For her part the fact, that he had seen her body, and she did not know, what to think of it. Lord Rosenkranz had eaten the majority of her soup, before he said:
“Do you ride, Lady Harold?”
“I’ve ridden in the past with Valdemar, but I haven’t in more than two years,” Anna remembered how they had used to race each other as teenagers and run away from their chaperones. They would hide and kiss while their chaperones were looking for them.
Later Anna had found a chaperone that had not minded waiting with one of Valdemar’s squires when Valdemar and Anna disappeared together. They would go swimming naked or make love on their cloaks on the forest floor.
Valdemar had said that he knew how they could prevent pregnancy and Anna had not cared about her virginity since she was going to marry Valdemar after all. Anna blushed when she thought of it. It seemed strange now sitting opposite Lord Rosenkranz and thinking about such intimate details.
“I’ll ask them whether they have a horse here for you,” Lord Rosenkranz said. He quickly shoveled the last soup into his mouth and then got up.
***
Anna had been afraid that she might have forgotten what it was like to ride, but as soon as she sat on the horse her body remembered. They rode out of the courtyard of the inn at a leisurely pace with the carriage behind them. When they were out of the small town, they made the horses trot and Anna could feel what Lord Rosenkranz was talking about. The air shifted through her dress, cooling her down. Anna smiled.
“I’ll race you to that hill,” she shouted to Lord Rosenkranz and without thinking, made the horse gallop.