"Bye!" Rebecca bid farewell as she rode out of the vineyard, off to go help someone else. Connie gave her an enthusiastic wave, watching her until she was out of sight, before he turned around and saw the Baroness giving him an amused look.
"You are quite fond of Rebecca, aren't you, Connie?" she asked with a slight smile. Connie blushed and glanced at the ground.
"Well, she's very nice and always here to help," Connie muttered, trying to conceal his feelings. The old woman nodded.
"That she is; there doesn't seem to be a person in Jorvik who has not been touched by her kindness. It is no surprise she has a secret admirer," she watched Connie closely, hiding a grin when he tensed up at the mention of a secret admirer. The woman was not a fool, and was certainly not blind.
"Uh, yeah…" Connie murmured, about to excuse himself except the Baroness began to speak again.
"I remember being young and having secret admirers, I remember even receiving a ring from one. Of course nowadays it is unheard of to present a girl with a promise ring; such a shame, it was such a nice tradition. Connie, would you be a dear and go find a box for me?" the Baroness requested and Connie agreed, following her instructions.
After some time digging through old boxes in storage he found the small box she had described. At one time it had been royal blue, but now it was faded and he could barely make out the floral print on the small box. When he peaked inside he was surprised to see a smaller jewelry box, but guilt at peaking made him stop before he opened the inner box.
"Ahh, thank you, Connie," the Baroness said when he presented his findings. She opened the blue box, removing the lid and handing the empty box to her butler before she opened the small velvet box. Inside was a dainty little ring of some sort of pink metal.
"Rose gold," the woman said, showing the ring to Connie. Looking at it closer he could see it had a sort of vine pattern on it, the flowers and design almost completely rubbed off by age.
"I think Rebecca would appreciate this as a reward for all of her services, why don't you give it to her?" it wasn't a question, Connie could tell based on the Baroness handing the ring box to him and the hinting tone in her voice. He looked up at her and nodded, taking the box and closing it. He had no idea when he was going to give it to her, what if Rebecca got the wrong idea? How was he going to give her a ring and not be awkward about it?
"Hey, Rebecca, so the Baroness meant to give this to you yesterday," Connie said suddenly while they were walking through the rows of vines.
"Oh?" she looked down at his hand as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little blue box. She set down the tools she was carrying and accepted the box, opening it up and looking at the ring curiously.
"The Baroness wanted me to have a ring?" she asked slowly with a raised eyebrow, looking at the furiously blushing boy.
"Yea… for all the help you've done around here. It's her old promise ring. Rose gold," oh he shouldn't have said anything this was embarrassing what was he doing this was stupid she was going to think he was so weird.
"The Baroness wants me to have her old promise ring?" Rebecca said again, even more confused with the new information.
"Yup, that's what she said," Connie wasn't sure why she started grinning so much, but he had a feeling she was about to say something that was going to make him very flustered.
"Are you sure you don't want to give me a promise ring?"
"What! No- I- I mean I-"
"Because I think we should at least get dinner or something beforehand…"
"I don't want to give you a promise ring!"
"Eesh, touchy. Anyway, thanks for delivering the ring, I'll have to remember to thank the Baroness later," before he could say more she stowed it in her pocket and continued on her way to the busted pipe that needed to be repaired.