Things settled down on the farm and Gold found himself getting increasingly used to Belle French's presence in his life. She had taken over the house, quite without his intending for it to happen. The kitchen was now her domain and in the couple weeks since she had settled in, he had happily allowed her to make his meals. He was sure he'd gained a couple pounds but he hadn't owned a scale since his wife had left him. It was one thing he had been happy to see go. And Belle had not asked about such a thing. Not that he would buy one for her if she did ask.
He was thankful she had not, really. His wife had been a shallow woman, spending time staring in the mirror, worrying about the lines near her eyes, contemplating Botox and plastic surgery and how to look younger than her years. Belle was younger than his ex, probably by a good fifteen years or more, but at around 30 she was long past the age when his ex-wife began lamenting about her wrinkles and grey hairs.
Belle seemed fairly natural and he had been surprised to see her tromping around the house wearing baggy pajamas that she had stolen from his drawers and her hair sticking out on end. After she showed up for her "interview" wearing a short skirt and high heels, he really hadn't expected her to be quite so laidback about things.
And he liked it, if he had to be honest. He was meticulous about his appearance, to be sure, but it allowed him to at least relax a little when she was there. Even if he did grouse a bit about the stolen pajamas. They're more comfortable than mine, was all she'd say and then go on her merry way. As if she weren't raiding his closets, as if he would just accept it as a normal part of his life.
He wasn't used to sharing his home with anyone, after all. He hadn't in some ten years except for the couple weeks in the summer that his son came to visit. Having someone there was disconcerting to say the least and her being so easy and relaxed about it all made it at least somewhat easier for him. Not that they didn't argue. Belle challenged him in ways no one else would dare. And he allowed it, which was not something he expected or even understood.
They had fallen into a routine over the weeks since she had come to live there. He woke to the smell of Belle throwing together breakfast. Breakfast. He was used to having some cold cereal and his tea. Belle believed in a good hearty breakfast, especially if she was going to be out in the barn working all morning. Lunch was something simple, but always homemade. Cold meat left over from the night before, a bit of bread, some cheese.
And then it was back outside to do some training with Bandit. The dog was coming along nicely, rather more so than he ever would have thought. He didn't tell her, not in so many words, but Belle was a natural with the dogs. The fact that Taz had gone right to her said a lot right from the start, but Bandit had also taken to her easily. They weren't quite a team yet, but they were on their way to it. They had gone from starting the dog's interest in sheep to working on the basic commands. Lie down, walk up, get back, easy. He ran Belle through the commands every morning. She had to know them without thinking about them.
A handler that is confused makes it even harder for the dog. They would trip over each other and create chaos among the herd.
Gold laid out a circle on the table in front of them. "Now the dog is here, Miss French," he said, pointing to a spot that put them at around the eleven o'clock mark. "If you want them to come toward you, is it 'away' or 'come by'?"
"Anti-clockwise. Away to me." She sounded almost excited. She knew she had it right.
"Yes. Exactly." She was almost never wrong and soon she would be ready for more.
He was loath to admit it, even to himself, but he enjoyed their afternoon training sessions. It had become a ritual of sorts, something to keep his mind off the cane and his need for help. He was getting around easier and the physical therapy was down to just twice a week. Every Monday and Thursday, David Nolan would arrive at the house promptly at 8:30am, far too cheerful as always, pick him up to bring him to that damned hospital to have his ankle poked and prodded, forced to bear weight on it. It was so damned painful and left him feeling so weak that he wasn't even allowed to drive himself. He couldn't wait to see the tail end of that one, though he suspected that even when he was done with it, he still wouldn't have regained all he'd lost.
He'd probably always need help.
Which meant that once Miss French left, and leave she would certainly do, he would have to hire someone else to take her place.
He dreaded that day. He was fairly certain she wasn't replaceable at all.
And frankly that thought quite perplexed him.
It was the beginning of her fourth week living with Gold when he told her it was time to get back out with the sheep again. She had been working individually with Bandit. Leaning the commands, teaching the commands. She couldn't have imagined just how much was involved in this sort of training. The dog certainly had instincts. She clearly wanted to drive the sheep, she had good balance according to Gold and though she was still a bit unruly, she had the makings of a fine sheepdog.
Not that Belle could tell a good one from a not so good one.
But she trusted Gold.
And that was a strange thing right there. She had come there simply to work and get out as soon as she could each day. Instead she found herself spending her mornings and evenings with Gold, discovered he was not the bad company he seemed to think he was.
That afternoon, the sun had come out and temperatures had finally climbed above 40. She hadn't been sure it would ever get there, so far up in the frigid north, but Gold had just laughed and assured her they did have a summer in Maine, despite what the locals may say.
When they met up out in the field, Gold had already had Taz separate five sheep from the group. They were milling about in the pen, just waiting for something to happen. Belle walked quickly to him with Bandit, who now seemed to be fairly attached to her, at her side. The dog, who had grown into her beautiful black and white coat, had truly become Belle's dog. Gold told her that the dogs were generally one-person dogs, working closely with their shepherd. A dog who did not bond to the shepherd or a dog who loved everyone was a liability.
Bandit certainly had bonded with Belle. Gold had been quick to note that. The dog had taken an instant like to her. Taz, his best working dog, had as well, much to his annoyance. But Bandit's bond had gone deeper. Recently, she became only the second dog to be allowed to sleep in the house, taking up residence in Belle's room and sticking close by her side.
"Are you ready for this?" Gold asked as she approached the pen with an increasingly alert Bandit. Introducing her to sheep and beginning formal lessons had given the focus to the young dog that she had been lacking.
"I think so. What are we doing?"
"Today we work on outruns." He opened the gate to the pen and waved her inside. He followed right behind her, Taz staying on the outside like he somehow knew his presence was not needed.
"Sending the dog out to gather the sheep?"
He nodded. "Exactly. I knew you could learn this stuff, Miss French."
"Aren't you ever going to call me Belle?"
He gave her a blank look. "The goal, Miss French…" She rolled her eyes at that. "Is to get the dog around the sheep and have them make the 'lift' gently and easily. If the dog comes in too close, the sheep can take off fast and in the wrong direction."
"Right. Pear-shaped." She remembered his drilling that into her, remembered watching Taz's outruns. He would shoot up at a diagonal to the sheep and then go out and around, coming in quietly and without any big fanfare behind them.
She was starting much the same, but without the great distance.
"Exactly. Now step here." He tapped his cane on the ground and when she stepped to the spot, backed off slightly. "Away to me or Come bye?" Belle glanced at the sheep. It didn't matter, really. It was a small pen.
"Away to me," she answered.
"Good. Get Bandit on your right side. When you release her you're going to have to show her where she's going. Raise your stick, point it in the direction you want and release her with the proper command. Don't think of it as left or right. It's anti-clockwise, nothing more."
She did as he said. "Away to me," she said, quiet, firm, and used her stick to point to her right, to the anti-clockwise direction. Bandit leapt back but went nowhere else.
"Again."
She did it again.
In fact, she did it four more times before Bandit took off racing in the correct direction. She didn't stop at the other end to make the leap, she kept going, flying past the sheep and upsetting them.
"Lie down." Gold growled and the way he said the words caused even Belle to jump. "You have to tell her to lie down. How the hell else is she going to understand her position?"
"Right," Belle responded with. "That'll do." She remembered that command at least and Bandit returned to her quickly. She brought her back to her right side and attempted another outrun command.
It only took two times this time and finally Bandit was running out and around the sheep. "Lie down!" Belle called at the right moment, just before the dog started to move the sheep. And Bandit did as she asked.
"Good." Gold responded with. "Now we just need to get her to move a little further out from the sheep. Did you see how close she cut to them?" The sheep he was using were dog savvy. They didn't move. Other sheep might have moved and truly skittish ones might have panicked and fled, causing complete chaos if they weren't in a solidly fenced in area.
He stepped up and showed her how to use her body and voice to get the dog to go out further.
Belle released Bandit from work once more, called her back, and set her up again. This time she watched and could see the moment Bandit started to turn too tight to the sheep. She stepped forward, used her stick, but was a little too late.
The next time she could anticipate it and got out there before Bandit started to close in. Her stick and command of "Get out" pushed her out and away from the sheep. Her command of "lie down" got the dog to stop in the right spot.
"Excellent," Gold said and she was sure that was the best compliment she had ever gotten from him. When he met her eyes, she realized there was some sort of pride there. "We might just make a shepherd of you yet."
"Thank you." This wasn't quite what she had in mind when she took on the job with him, but she found she couldn't complain. He was a difficult task master, a difficult man to get to know, but when he was out with the sheep and the dogs, he seemed an entirely different person all together. There was a quiet confidence to him and he was clearly in his element. Belle found she very much enjoyed seeing that side of him.
"Release her," he pointed out and Belle turned to glance back at Bandit, who was still watching the sheep with a focused eye.
"That'll do," Belle said and immediately the dog was at her side. Faster than she'd seen her run to Gold. It was pretty impressive the speed the dog had when she needed it.
He had her practice a few more short outruns, sometimes clockwise, sometimes the opposite and then had her release the dog for a final time.
"Short sessions," Gold said as Belle released the sheep from the pen to rejoin the herd and she and Gold made their slow way back to the house.
"I thought these dogs were supposed to have great stamina."
Gold looked at her out of the corner of his eye and smirked. "Doing research, have you?"
"I have degrees in library science. What did you expect?" Research was her life. Spending time in a library or even online in virtual stacks, made her feel alive. Maybe that was strange and it was probably especially strange to someone like Gold, whose entire life revolved around the physical…sheep, dogs, spinning, wool. But it was her and when she had a chance to do a bit of reading on sheepdogs and herding, she jumped at the chance. She already had several websites full of videos and instructions bookmarked on her laptop.
"I didn't know that."
"Didn't you read my resume?" She turned to look at him with wide, innocent eyes. At Gold's scoffing noise, Belle grinned. "That is why you hired me, isn't it?"
"Oh yes," he responded with. "There's a great demand for librarians on sheep farms. Hadn't you heard? They're all the rage these days."
She laughed and reached over to link arms with him before realizing just what exactly she was doing. Withdrawing, she stepped a little bit further away from Gold and they finished the rest of the walk in silence.
When they arrived and stepped into the house, Gold gave her a somewhat odd look. "Dinner tonight?"
"Of course." It was a dismissal. She knew it for what it was and didn't question it. He was a private man, that much she knew, and often withdrew to his study or another room after their afternoon training sessions. She was left to her own devices then. Sometimes she went into town to see Ruby and Ariel. Both were becoming fast friends and Belle was thankful for that, even if neither understood why exactly she continued to work for the "monstrous" Gold.
If it was one of her father's good days, she went to visit him at the hospital. He had many days that weren't good, doped up on heavy painkillers and asleep for much of the day. He was a kind old soul, had raised her after her mother died. He did his best by her, though even her father would admit that he wasn't the ideal parent. But she loved him. Loved him dearly. He was all she had left in the world, so far away from her home country. But he was failing. And quickly.
She wasn't ready to lose him, but the cancer was eating at him little by little. Chemotherapy and radiation could only beat it back so long and he was losing that battle. She knew his life was measured in months, maybe even weeks. And so she visited as often and for as long as he could handle. Some days she dropped in only to give him a kiss on the cheek, others she spent time playing Scrabble and Yahtzee with him.
They were sad days and yet joyful at the same time. She had quiet moments to cherish, seeing her father's face light up when she told him she had a job and was making good money and would be able to support herself was worth everything in the world. It was worth dealing with Gold's sarcasm, worth dealing with the occasional temper tantrum. And he had a fair amount of those. Gold was usually highly controlled in his actions, but after he got back from a physical therapy appointment he was like an angry cat, shouting at anything in his way and holing himself up in his room where he couldn't be bothered.
She hadn't told her father she was living with her employer. She didn't dare. She wanted these last weeks, last months to be good ones for her father and she didn't want him to fret about her living situation. He didn't know Gold, of course, and he didn't know his reputation. But he would find out soon enough if he spoke of it to the nurses.
And so she kept such worrisome things from her father. Sometimes it was just easier that way.
Seven pounds, three ounces. David Nolan still couldn't quite believe it. He had a daughter. His wife had given birth early that morning after a long drawn-out labor. It hadn't been a particularly hard birth, they told him, but it was her first and the first was usually the longest labor. But it was worth it…so very worth it. Seeing her hold their infant daughter, getting to cradle her fragile little body in his own arms. It was worth every single bit of it.
Mary Margaret had been admitted for the night, common practice they told him. If all went well, she could go home tomorrow and suddenly his life would be something entirely different than it had been. But that night he was on his own. Visiting hours ended at 8:00pm and the nurses had asked the new father to head home for the night.
And he would head home. He promised Mary Margaret he would get a good night of sleep. But he wasn't ready to go home just yet to his quiet and lonely house with the new cradle all assembled, the room painted in yellows and greens, the house that would be not just his and Mary Margaret's, but a family's. First he had a stop off to make. Gold's.
It wasn't that he and Gold were really friends, but in many ways he was the closest he had to one. They were fairly isolated in the hills as they were and despite everything, Gold had been there for he and Mary Margaret. Through everything they'd ever been through, the cantankerous older man had somehow managed to support them. If that didn't make them friends, he wasn't sure what did really.
The lights were on at Gold's when he pulled up in front of the house at about half past eight. Gold was often a bit of a night owl, which was unusual among shepherds, who tended to be up before dawn to tend to their flock. And it wasn't that Gold didn't get up early. He did. But somehow he managed late nights and early mornings. He didn't know how he did it.
He knocked and worried that the other man might find it taxing to get all the way to the door to let him in. He knew how cranky that made Gold. He was just about to open the door and duck his head in when it flew open.
"Belle!" David exclaimed.
"David," Belle responded with and he was struck by the warmth of her voice. "Is everything ok?"
He just blinked. "What are you doing here?"
"I was just going to ask you the same thing," Belle said and he was sure he heard a sardonic twist to the words. Had she been spending too much time with Gold? He didn't even want to begin to contemplate why the young woman was at the man's house this late at night.
"I…" he started to say but the words caught in his throat.
"I live here," Belle finally said in answer to his question and he almost choked. "In my own room. David, what is going on?" She sounded like she was scolding him with the last.
"I'm sorry." He ran his fingers through his hair and pulled out the two cigars he had tucked into the pocket of his shirt. "I guess I should have brought three of these then."
Belle stared at them for a moment before he saw understanding dawn. "Oh David." She stepped forward and embraced him quickly. "Congratulations!" She stepped back from the hug. "Boy or girl?"
"Girl," he responded. "Emma Renee."
"That's a lovely name."
"I'd hate to break up this little chat, but is there a reason you're here so late, Mr. Nolan?" Gold's acerbic voice came from somewhere behind Belle and David watched her jump and turn to face him.
He held up the two cigars and it took only a moment for it to register. Gold's whole face softened and it was an unexpected sight, not something many would ever get to see.
"Congratulations," he said and his voice had lost all of the edge it had a moment before. "The birth of your first child…well…it's something special." He held his hand to his heart. "Truly."
"Thanks. So um…"
Gold eyed the cigars and reached out, took one in his hand. "Nice choice."
"You know cigars?"
He shrugged. "I don't smoke them, if that's what you mean. But I know the good ones."
David just shook his head. Gold often seemed to know everything. He supposed when one holed themselves up their house as often as Gold did, it meant a lot of time to read up on anything that interested him. David wasn't much of a reader. He was a doer and in his spare time, which was likely to be about none starting the next day, he watched a bit of television.
He wasn't even sure Gold owned a television.
"So do you want to…"
"Not inside," Gold said quickly. "I don't expose the dogs to such things." David found his eyebrows raise at that. Taz was, of course, near Gold. He was always near Gold. But what was amazing was that the dog got up once in awhile and weaved between Gold and Belle, before settling down at Gold's side. Behind Belle, settled into a slight crouch was a second dog. He recognized it, the distinctive mask around the dog's eyes one he had seen before amongst Gold's dogs. But the dog was in the house? It was the first time he had ever seen a dog besides Taz in Gold's house. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that. He wasn't quite sure what to make of any of this, frankly.
"I'll just leave you two to it then," Belle said and started to bow out of the conversation.
"Not at all, dear," Gold said. "Please do join us." He waved her ahead of him and as she nodded and stepped past them, David watched Gold watching her. The man's eyes followed her the entire time and if it weren't Gold who was doing the watching, he was sure that the look would be described as one part longing and one part lust. The latter he could understand from a purely aesthetic viewpoint, but this was Gold he was talking about. He had never seen the man so much as glance at a woman. Or a man for that matter. He had been fairly certain there was no attraction to any gender on Gold's part.
But he was fairly certain now.
Gold was attracted to her.
And that could mean very bad things for Belle, living with the man as she was now.
But then they approached the enclosed porch and he watched Belle open the door for Gold and allow him to enter first and damned if she didn't seem to have the same look Gold had on her face. A slight smile, eyes that lingered just a little bit too long. There was something both familiar and strange there.
With a quick shake of his head, he followed them onto the porch and sunk into one of the chairs there. This was definitely going to be an odd evening.
And probably a damned uncomfortable one too.
He'd have to remember to tell Mary Margaret about it when he returned to the hospital the next day.