It was the middle of the next week when Gold stopped by again. He had mostly left her alone the first few days. Monday had indeed been hard, but she was up to the challenge. The muscle rub he had given her was good and while she still felt a bit achy, it certainly had made her feel a little bit more supple. She didn't feel like she was going to collapse at least. She supposed that was a start.
And she was sure she was getting stronger. It had only been a week and a half but she felt like something was coming of this. She wasn't one who was used to physical labor, preferring research and books to such a thing, but she was starting to actually enjoy it. And that surprised her more than anything.
Gold stepped into one of the stalls as she was dumping water into the trough. When she turned, bucket still in hand, she nearly ran into him. "Careful," she said, a little quirk to her lips. "A little earlier and you might have ended up soaked."
"I suspect you might do that just out of spite, Miss French."
"Do you really think I'm that sort of woman?" She smirked as she said the words and was rewarded with a small scoffing noise. Perhaps he already knew her better than she thought he did. Glancing down, she noted he was leaning rather heavily on a cane. "No crutches?"
"The doctor cleared me," he stated. Leaning back he raised his damaged foot, now encased in a brace instead of the heavy cast he had been wearing.
"That's quite a fashion statement."
"Indeed." He was quiet for a moment, hands clenching and unclenching over the top of the cane, staring down at his foot, at the cane. She was almost positive that he hated the thing, perhaps even more than the crutches. There was every chance that he would spend the rest of his life using that cane and she was sure that he deeply resented that fact. "Miss French?" he finally managed to say, looking up again to meet her eyes. She nodded. "When you're done here, I'd like you to join me on the hill."
And then he was gone, his uneven gait carrying him as quickly as he could out of the barn.
He didn't give her a choice, she realized, and shook her head.
The rest of the chores went easily enough. She didn't rush. But she didn't drag either. She was curious about what he had in store for her and so wrapped up quicker than she had on the previous days. When she stepped out of the barn, she fully expected to find no sign of Gold, but he was out there already. He stood off to the left side of the hill, Taz at his side. She wasn't sure he went anywhere without the dog, really. He was always there on the farm, inside the house, constantly attentive and watching Gold, waiting for him to issue a command, use that whistle of his.
He stood near a small pen that contained just a few sheep, not the thirty-something that she had watched him control with the help of his dog.
When he noticed her approach, he turned toward her and she realized he was holding a dog in his arms. Black and white, small, probably bit more puppy than dog, it squirmed in Gold's arms. "You remember Bandit," he said and released the dog.
The dog flew out of his arms and leapt at Belle, nearly knocking her off her feet before taking off around the hill in great loops. It would occasionally almost skid into one of them before taking off again. Yes. She did remember her. She seemed to recall being almost knocked on her butt the last time she had met the overly enthusiastic dog.
"And Bandit would be…"
"Your dog." Her eyebrows rose at that news, but before she got a chance to say anything, he continued. "You're going to learn how to herd." It was a statement, not a question.
"What?" Her voice was a little more high-pitched than she would have liked.
"You were interested in it," he pointed out. "So you're going to learn how to do it."
"Why?" she asked.
"Why not?" And perhaps he had a point. Why not, indeed.
Bandit went flying past her again and she turned to Gold. "So what do I do?"
He smiled. "Get ahold of her, keep her close, and bring her into the pen." He opened the gate to the pen, using his cane to keep the sheep back, before stepping through. After a few attempts, Belle was able to get ahold of the long line that Bandit was attached to and reel in the exuberant young dog.
She stepped inside the pen and let the gate close behind her. Bandit trembled at her side. She could feel the excitement wafting off the dog as she zig-zagged back and forth in front of her, desperate to get to the sheep, desperate to do something that perhaps even the dog didn't understand just yet. "Now what?"
He reached over and handed her a thin piece of PVC piping that was leaning against the side of the pen. She took it, held it close to her. "What am I supposed to do with this?"
"This is an extension of yourself." He took it from her, held it out in front of him. "It will give you more reach, extend your arms and, in a way, the size of your body."
"It's plumbing."
He laughed. "It is. But it's lighter weight than any crook and far better for early training." She gave him a skeptical look. "Just hold onto it. Now come. Release her. We need to see what she can do. And more importantly, I need to see what you can do."
Belle dropped the line and Bandit was off like a shot. She circled around the sheep once, twice, then again. Every once in awhile she drove in closer to them and when they started to move away, she circled again. To the left, to the right, everything in near continuous movement. Belle watched, not even sure what she was supposed to be looking for. The sheep would come flying at her and she'd step back out of the way. The dog would fly around them again, the sheep would move, Belle would sidestep them. It was like a dizzying dance, not the calm one she had watched Gold enact with his dog.
"You need to stop her." Gold said.
Belle tried to grab Bandit as she flew past her but it was like attempting to get ahold of a greased pig. The dog slipped through and kept moving. The sheep skittered left then right as the dog careened around them.
"With your stick," Gold pointed out.
"I don't hit dogs."
"I'm not saying hit her," he shot back. "You need to put pressure on her to convince her to stay out on the other side." He stepped past her. "Like this." As Bandit came around the sheep one more time he raised his cane and immediately Bandit turned, avoiding the cane and headed back in the direction she came from. "Now you."
Belle stepped forward and raised her stick as Bandit came around to the right. The dog simply dodged it and kept moving. On the next go-around she tried it again, no luck. Finally on the third time Belle timed the motion of the stick as she raised it and drove it into the ground in front of the dog perfectly and Bandit darted back and away from it.
Bandit ran in the other direction and Gold shouted at her to keep the dog moving to the other side of the sheep, balance them toward her. Step back. Let the sheep come to her, stop the dog from coming behind her, use the stick. His commands to her were firm and hers to the dog were equally firm.
It was all about pressure. Shepherd to dog, dog to sheep. The motion was dizzying. It was almost a comedy of errors, the dog continuously evading the stick, still racing in circles. And then one time she hesitated. Just slightly. She was out beyond the sheep and had slowed down
"Lie down," Gold said and the dog dropped to her belly immediately.
"Yes," Gold said and the word came from far too close behind her. "Watch her. She's getting it." He stepped closer to her, put one hand on her shoulder. Bandit was staring at the sheep and she seemed almost transfixed by the beasts.
Belle turned her head slightly, met Gold's eyes. "Step back," he whispered, pulling lightly at her shoulder. She went with him, backing up a couple steps. Bandit stayed still, in her down, watching the sheep. "To the left," he said and pulled her to the left a little. Gold stopped her from going any further for a moment.
"What are…"
"Walk up," Bandit immediately crept forward. The sheep moved toward where Belle and Gold stood.
She could hardly breathe. They took a few steps at a diagonal angle and watched as Bandit compensated, shooting out to her left a bit and driving the sheep forward.
"The goal," Gold managed to say, "is to always…always…keep the sheep between you and the dog. If you go one way, the dog should balance the sheep and move them toward you." They stepped several feet to the right and Bandit balanced them one more time
"Surely there must be more than that," Belle murmured and was rewarded by Gold's hand squeezing her shoulder once before dropping away.
"So much more," he responded with, his voice soft and devastating so close to her ear. "But this is only the first lesson, Miss French. There's so much more to come."
She nodded, trying to ignore the shiver that raced up her spine.
They continued the dance for a moment more, first one way, then the other, always just a handful of steps in the small pen. Gold allowed her to do it a few times on her own and then told her to release Bandit from her duties.
"How?"
"Bandit," he said in response and she watched the dog's eyes flick toward him for just a moment before she returned to watching the sheep. "That'll do."
One moment the dog was focused, intense, and in the next she was loping toward them with her tongue lolling out of one side of her mouth. Belle took a deep breath. "That was amazing."
She had never seen something like that from so close, watching as the dog caught on, as the dog started to get her job right. Bandit trotted over to her and lay at her side and it was clear the mental task had left the young dog fairly tired, but no doubt happy. She was finding her job, her place in the world.
Belle was somewhat envious. She wished she could find her place so easily.
"It is," he said.
They remained quiet for another moment, before Gold turned toward the gate to the pen, leaning heavily on it as he exited. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"You're just going to leave it there?" Belle felt surprised at that. Somehow she had expected more.
"Of course. Dogs don't learn this overnight and neither do you." He waggled a finger at her. "Tomorrow," he said one more time and opened the gate wide. The three sheep that had been penned in darted out and immediately made their way up the hill, the draw to the rest of the herd obvious as soon as they realized where they were.
Gold walked off, Taz at his side, leaving Belle and young Bandit on the hillside. "Come on, Bandit." She made her way back to the barn and left her in the heated part of the barn with the rest of the dogs. She left the farm for the day then, not seeing another sign of Gold as she headed off.
It had been a long evening at the diner. For the past week Belle had been helping out when they were short-handed or when things were especially busy. And tonight was perhaps the worst she'd ever seen it. It was a cold night, rainy, and it seemed that it had driven everyone into the diner. The place was positively packed and Ruby had begged for the additional help. Belle was tired, still reeling a bit from her impromptu sheepherding lessons, but she couldn't refuse the young waitress.
And so she had been serving people for several hours that night. Her whole body ached. She was exhausted. When things finally quieted down a little after eight that night, Belle and Ruby had put up their feet, leaned up against the wall, and taken deep breaths.
"So how's working for Gold going?
Belle shook her head. "Fine, I suppose? He's teaching me how to herd."
Ruby gave her a rather cock-eyed look. "What brought that on?"
"My interest in it, apparently." She still didn't quite know how admiring what he did with the dogs translated to her wanting to become a shepherd herself, but she supposed the man was lonely and she the more time she spent with him, the more she couldn't quite shake that idea.
"Odd," Ruby said and looked up to find Granny looking over them. "Oops, back to work with us!"
The rest of their shift was mostly uneventful. Leroy drank too much and made a nuisance of himself, but he always did that. Granny damned near threw out Killian Jones and his crew. They were troublemakers, the lot of them. They had been caught attempting to sell stolen goods more than once and Jones himself had been caught shoplifting some pretty expensive items from the electronics store in the next town over. They were bad news, but unless they were specifically doing something wrong, there was little Ruby or her grandmother could do.
David Nolan stopped in and Belle was so very pleased to see him. He gave her a strange look, however, when she told him she was learning to herd and she desperately wanted to ask what it was about, but the moment had passed and he had picked up his meal to go. Mary Margaret was some eight and a half months pregnant, her due date looming large, and didn't dare come out in case everything was set into motion and she didn't have anything they had prepared for the event.
Belle had just finished serving a lovely elderly couple when she turned back toward the door to greet the newcomers. "Can I help…you?" Her voice faded away on the last syllable, seeing Gold standing just inside the door. He looked a little strung out, hair sticking out on end, and he was gripping the cane like his very life depended on it. "Mr. Gold." And her voice might have sounded far more welcoming and warm than any might have imagined.
"Belle," he said and she did not miss that he had used her first name for the first time. "Miss French." He stumbled over the words. "What are you doing?"
He seemed almost offended and she might have laughed if he didn't look so damned serious. "I'm working."
"You work for me." The words weren't exactly growled at her, but they were close.
"Yes I do." She cocked her head to the side in confusion.
"Then why are you here?" He pointed at the ground on the last word, emphatic.
"They offered me free room and board."
"If you work yourself to death?" And did he actually look a bit concerned over her? His brows had been drawn low over his eyes and he glared at the people in the diner. Everyone who had stopped to watch their conversation went back to eating, talking with their loved ones. But she was sure they were keeping half an ear to the conversation going on in their midst.
"I'm not."
"I will not have you working here," he interrupted her with.
Belle glared at him for a moment. "Granny," she finally called out. "I need to take a short break."
The older woman eyed her, clearly nervous. "If you need anything…"
"We'll just be outside," Belle pointed out and reached out to grab Gold's forearm. She tugged lightly and he had no choice but to go with her or risk falling over. The cane was some support, but she had just pulled him slightly off center. And so he followed, looking upset, even angry.
When they got to a more private area, Belle turned on him. "Just what do you think you're doing?"
He shrugged, one elegant move of his shoulders. He was dressed well this night, perfectly pressed suit that fit his trim form far better than Belle would have liked to admit. "You can't work here."
"I damn well can. It's my life. No one controls it but me." She raised her hand to jab a finger in his chest before deciding against that and backing away from him slightly. "Not you, not my father, no one."
"What if I don't want you to work here?" His voice had softened just slightly.
"No dice," she responded with.
"Why?"
"Again, my life."
He shook his head and she could see him becoming increasingly frustrated with her. "But why?"
"You already know I need the money…"
"I don't pay you enough?" He sounded incredulous. And annoyed. Very very annoyed. "What more could you possibly need?"
"This is about my father, in case you've conveniently forgotten that. Nearly every cent I make goes to his care. If I work here…"
"You don't have to pay for a room," he surmised.
"Or food," she added. Granny had a tendency to cook too much and rather than freeze it and call it the special the next day, she simply tossed it into a container for someone to take. Belle had taken advantage of that several times already. When she was too exhausted and in too much pain, a quick meal she could toss in the microwave made her life so much easier.
"I have both," he suddenly said.
"Pardon?" Was he saying what she thought he was saying? It wasn't possible. Someone as private as Gold didn't just up and offer someone space in their home.
"You can live with me."
"No," she said without even thinking about it.
"There's plenty of room in the house for two people. You wouldn't even have to see me…"
"I'm not a charity case," she pointed out.
"I'm not saying you are," he shot back.
"Then?"
"You can do some light cleaning. Maybe dust, vacuum? I'm a bachelor, Miss French. Surely you can understand that I need all the help I can get."
She had been inside his house. She wasn't so sure that was true. His house had been immaculate. Frankly, she hadn't expected much else out of him. She started to speak but he interrupted her before she could get a word out.
"Well, despite what you may think, it would be easier for me if you did some of the basics. I don't think the dusting has happened since right before my injury."
"David hasn't been helping out?'
"Oh he has, but he refuses to put on the little maid's dress."
She let out a little snort. "Ok so let me get this straight. I work for you. You pay me. And I get to stay in a room up there for a little light cleaning."
"Exactly."
"What are you getting out of this?" She cocked her head slightly to the side, studied him. "I mean, why do you really want me there?"
He crinkled up his nose a little. "The place is filthy." And she was sure it wasn't that. He was lonely. She was even more certain now than ever that he desperately needed some companionship. But mentioning it to him was out of the question. He'd deny it. She knew that much about him already.
"Alright." She was sure she had taken leave of her senses. Live with the man. She couldn't even imagine how that one was going to go. They clashed wills almost every time they saw each other.
"Excellent. My car is just around back. We can go up now."
Belle shook her head. "Easy there, bucko. I have my own car and it's late. I'll be up in the morning." Gold watched her a moment longer before nodding and limping off back to his car.
Shaking her head, Belle walked back inside the diner.
"What was that about?" Ruby was on her almost as soon as she got inside.
"It seems I have a new living arrangement." She shook her head.
"With Gold?" At her nod, Ruby shuddered. "What is he, some kind of lecher?"
"I…" She paused there. Was he? She thought of his response to her touching him, the way he froze, dropped his gaze, moved slightly away. "No," she said firmly. "I think he's lonely."
"Oh Belle, don't tell me you're one of those."
"One of…"
"You know the type…always sees the good in people, that sort of thing. Gold's a bastard."
Belle laughed. "I know. But this is for my father, Ruby."
"You can still stay here…"
"I'll come down to visit, I promise," she said with a small smile. "But I think this is really my best option."
Ruby gave her an assessing look. "Well, fine. But if you don't come down with some amazing gossip about that bastard, I will be sorely disappointed."
Belle just laughed. "I'll do my best." The two went back to work for Belle's last night at the diner.