Spinning Gold

Chapter One: Not Sir

-Note…There is a reason why this story is rated T (and no! its not beace I curse like a sailor…okay may be a little…) for other reasons than the obvious ones. *waggles eyebrows*

It was a normal day. The sky was blue and the grass was green. But of course there was something not very normal about it…

It was two years ago that I had last sung to the king, a year later he died. Now Prince Derek ruled. They said that he was greedy, very, very, very greedy. They also say that he loved to have young woman hanging around just waiting for…well, you get my drift. The country was going down hill. My father's once prosperous mill was failing…badly. This left me to fend on my own, scrounging up what cloth I could for my dresses.

I had nice ones, but I didn't wear them much. I usually wore a simple blue dress with a white apron and a kerchief around my hair, just because I no longer saw nay point in grooming my hair to perfection every morning… Now that I was in not as nice clothing as I was accustomed to… I saw no point in my hours in front of the mirror.

Instead I went into town and helped out whomever I could for a little money, or bread. Usually I worked at the bakery. It was my favorite place, all of the hustle and bustle, pounding the dough, icing pastries and cakes, making pie crusts, the cheerful songs that erupted randomly, and of course there was…him.

No, not the Prince…er…King now…I was done with him(it was a pointless infatuation caused by my vanity)…there was no point with that stupid little fix of mine. No this was a different person. He made my insides flutter whenever he smiled at me. Just talking to him made you feel like you were the only other person in the world with him. He made everything worth wild. He was now the fixation of my days, making me feel like that vain child that everyone wanted not too long ago. He made me feel everything but the poor miller's daughter that was dressed in rags and worked for food…

He was really the baker's son, but he did not look like what I would think a baker would look like. Not portly or stout or fat, but lean and hard like he worked in the fields instead of at the bakery. His skin was a warm caramel color, also making him appear as if he'd been outside indefinitely. He seemed to glow with the color. I on the other hand, was as pasty as the icing we used on the cinnamon buns. But alas, this isn't about me, its about him. Like everything else I did was revolved around him. He was very…foreign looking. The caramel skin(we've been over that already! Keep up!) and the unnatural muscled hardness of his body, but also the long, loose black curls and the coffee brown eyes, but as different as he was, he had every woman in town swooning over him, including me… Yes I know, I know, not at all like me, right, but this is two years later and I learned my lesson…in that odd dream and memory mix, which I still can't tell which parts are fact and which parts are fiction. But this man was worth my time. I still look back on the day we had met, with perfect clarity, knowing each and every fact about it, unlike another circumstance I could name…(yes, I'm that pathetic!)

"Hello!" I cheerfully said to the man who had his back to me. He turned around slowly, my breath had caught. He was devilishly handsome, was it a sin to look like that? It must be. I felt blood in my cheeks.

"Yes?" he asked, raising a dark brow. I scrambled, trying to get my words straight.

"I was wondering if I could…perhaps work at the bakery you run?" I asked. His coffee eyes appraised my tattered dress.

"Fine then…" he trailed off and waited for my name.

"Aya." I said simply. No need for him to know the title the King had bestowed upon me so long ago…

"Lady Aya." he said, flashing a brilliant smile. My insides twisted… and from there on I had been wrapped around his pinkie finger.

I sighed and shook my head, no need to distract my self with that…I kneaded the dough with more force, a great place to take your anger out on, I suggest you try it. I hummed a little under my breath and then sung some words along with it, just a child's song really.

"I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee, won't my mommy be so proud of me, I'm bring home a baby bumblebee. Ouch! He stung me! I'm squishing up the baby bumble bee, won't my mommy be so proud of me, I'm squishing up a baby bumble bee…" I paused and molded the dough to the pie…container? Just because I work in the bakery doesn't mean I know the name of everything! So back off! And yes, I like that song and surprise, surprise, I am not a middle aged woman!(I'm only…oh crap! I forgot!)

"I'm cleaning up the baby bumblebee." a low voice sang quietly in my ear. I jumped about six feet high an out of my skin (not an easy task, let me tell you!). "Nice song, quiet childish if you ask me…" the voice continued, still whispering. I swallowed against the dry ach in my throat and turned around, fixing a smile on my face.

"You scared me!" I told him. Yes it was him. God, it seriously is a sin to have your eyes do that…maybe I should tell him?

"Sorry bout that." he said, turning away and taking the pie…pan? from me.

"You need to go to confession!" I blurted out. My hand smacked across my lips and I held my breath as my face turned slowly hot, and I knew that I was a brilliant red color. He turned around slowly.

"What?" he asked me, his eyes searching mine, the amused smile halfway there and half not.

"Nothing Jake." He smiled slightly and looked around, his eye brows lifted like he had just noticed that we were the only two working this Sunday.

He turned back, an amused smile on his face. He stepped closer to me, I stepped back, feeling the cold counter press into my back. My breath was coming fast. He took another step towards me, my heart quickened. Another step. I swear to the holy lord I was going to have a heart attack if he didn't stop. He took another step until we were touching, chest to chest. I couldn't get enough air into my lungs. He reached his arms forward and braced himself on the counter, trapping me. His eyes smoldered as he studied my face closely, judging my reactions and other such things that give away what you were feeling (But he must have felt my heart…or heard it, I certainly could…). Oh how I wanted to close that short distance between his mouth and mine, but I wasn't allowed. Damn being a girl, its sucks!(in my time anyway…)

He laughed suddenly. A low husky laugh. An odd ache formed within me at that, I needed to be closer to him. I placed my hands on his chest, twining my fingers in his shirt. He laughed again.

"They were right, I was blind."

Before I could question him, his lips were touching mine, softly and tenderly. I wrapped my arms around his neck and then pushed my fingers into his curls, reveling in the softness of his hair. His arms crushed me closer to him. But it wasn't enough. I wanted to be even closer. The direction of my thoughts(for the purity of your poor minds I won't describe what I was thinking we could be doing…)surprised me. I turned my head away, suddenly feeling very sick with myself.

"No." I whispered.

His grip around me loosened and his arms went slack. I turned around and kneed the dough in silence. When I turned back around he was gone. Probably attending the counter or something. A feeling churned deep down inside of my stomach. It felt like guilt, but I knew what it really was…the problem I had though was very big…much bigger than you could possibly know. Sighing I turned around and filled the pie pan with blue berries ad then put it into the oven. Life sucked sometimes.

--

Later that day I was out in my garden, trying desperately to tend to the vegetables so that they would grow and my father and I would have food. I hadn't dressed up for the occasion, there was really no point, I was mucking around I the dirt anyways. So an old patched blue dress and a kerchief around my hair, which was, needless to say, was tangled beyond help…

So. I was bending over working at the carrots when I heard horses close by, being out in the country this was not an unusual occurrence, so I didn't look up. But then the horses slowed…Right by the forest which was a good ten feet from where I was standing. I looked up shielding my eyes and squinting at the riders. It was just two of them, sitting still, looking about, seeming out of place with their impatient horses prancing. One of the men called out to me.

"Maiden! Might you have any drink to spare?"

I switched my gaze to the rider that had spoken to me. The rider was on a black horse that looked around seeming bored. He was wearing the standard brown pants and boots of a hunter, but his green clock was pulled tight about him and the hood shrouded his face from view, well all except for his jaw and lips which were displaying a little half smile. I wiped the sweat off of my forehead, it really was hot out, so what was he doing riding around in a cloak? His companion nudged him and whispered something, the other shook his head and responded. The man who had spoken to his companion looked at me and gestured towards me a couple of times, the other, hooded man, just waved him off nonchalantly.

"Yes sirs, we have a well, if you just follow me." I walked out of my garden, not caring if they followed, I could use some water too.

I reached the stone well that was in the front yard and dipped the old wooden bucket in, cranking the handle to pull up the now heavy bucket, but not that heavy…(you get killer muscles working on a farm…)

I placed the bucket on the ledge and dipped my hands in the cool water, splashing it on my face and then back of my neck. I brought it to my lips and drank. I dropped the bucket back in for more water,. I pulled it up and on the ledge and turned around. The two men were standing there, the man without the hood looking uncomfortable with his companion was smiling a little secretive smile. The kind that tells you he knows a joke…a cruel joke that happens to be about you and no way in hell he would tell you the joke.

"Here you go." I said motioning to the bucket.

I left them to their own devices. Seeing as my other cousin (I don't think you know her yet.) had given and old crone some water and then jewels fell from her mouth and then well…she is sort of hiding out right now, trying not to be found by her stalkers…right but, that's not our story, right? Right! So…lets see…Okay so-

So I went back to my garden, tending to the dieing lettuce because of the drought that was happening and paying attention to my thoughts ( I was still incredibly confused about what happened at the bakery…). So when the shadow fell over me and I turned around to find the cloaked man, you could imagine my surprise.

"Thank you for the drink." he said, bowing his head slightly.

"Oh…it's…nothing." I said hesitantly. He took my hand and placed a gold coin in it, curling my fingers around it. I looked at the money surprised.

"Sir, really, you don't have to…" I trailed off.

He smiled a bit at me and pulled his hood back. I studied his face carefully, he looked vaguely familiar with the caramel skin and the chiseled jaw line. His dark brown hair was falling into his eyes and flipped up slightly at the ends. He raked his fingers through his hair and then smiled again, the expression adding a light to his eyes. I had to look up to see him, since he was a good head or so taller than me.

"But I wanted to." he whispered, his hand still holding mine. I looked away, totally uncomfortable with the way things were going.

"Well…er…thank you, sir." I said. He smiled that brilliant smile again and the world spun.

"Not sir." he said simply.

"What then?" I asked intelligently and not at all in a rude tone…

"Just Eben." he said. I smiled slightly and dipped my head.

"Eben," I said, curtsying a bit. He smiled slightly and bowed grandly in response.

"Aya," He said and then turned on his heel, leaving me to stare after him and wonder how in the name of hell he knew my name when I said nothing to him about it…

XoxOxoX

A/N- Hey guys! this is TWO WHOLE DAYS EARLY! Claps for me! Okay so…yeah, I'm not very fond of this story…but then again Derek is being an ass and won't tell me when the miller goes to see him, that and he doesn't really want to deal with the miller right now…see only a real writer would understand what I said there. Oh well! I hope that this kept you entertained, until next time chickadees! (oh and what did you think of Jake and Eben? Do tell me who you want her to like!)