Touched
The Touch, volume two
by Polly J Adams
Copyright 2011 Polly J Adams
James Grieve Press
Smashwords Edition
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Contents
Touched
Saul
Saul was there for the summer, working with the stonemasons repairing the village church after a landslide. He had come to learn a trade and to take his first independent steps in the world. He never expected to encounter anyone quite like Ruth.
She was there in the window, watching the men work. He did not know her as Ruth then. She was just a shape, a shadow, a presence.
He sat on a gravestone, drinking ale from one of the flagons Rosie had brought up from the inn, washing down the last crumbs of the bread he'd had for lunch. He'd spent the morning shifting building stone up to the church from where it had been dumped in the lane, one block at a time.
Already in the short time he'd been here he had bulked up from the labour and good country food. Today the sun beat down from a blue sky and a sheen of sweat glossed skin that was turning from pink to golden brown.
Rosie had stopped to chat and he had caught her eyeing his bare chest, her gaze down his body, and it was like the girls from the convent school back in the city: that look, the idle chat prolonging the encounter. He was staying in one of the back rooms at the inn and now he wondered if he would be alone tonight, when Rosie finished in the bar.
Then, after she had gone and the others had reluctantly picked up their tools, while Saul paused to finish the last of his lunch, he had glanced up to the dark house that was almost hidden in the trees. The Hall, someone had called it.
And there, in the window: a shape, a shadow. A slight movement and he realised it was a person, a girl. She had long dark hair and the palest of skin and appeared to be wearing some kind of long white robe.
Something about her made him stare, unable to look away.
She was watching them, watching him, perhaps.
A hand on his shoulder made him jump.
"Don't want to be havin' any of that," said Jasper, the stonemason Saul was working with. "You want to be stayin' away from the sisters, you hear me, boy?"
"The sisters?"
Jasper nodded and turned away. "More blocks," he said. "We need more blocks."
The pile of building stone by the east wall had barely gone down during the morning. Regardless, Saul stood and headed down towards the lane. He was a good worker, and determined to make the best of this opportunity. If Jasper said to fetch more stone, he would fetch more stone.
*
"So who is she? The girl at the Hall. Who is she?"
They were walking down the lane towards the inn for a drink. the day's work done.
"Trouble," said Jasper. "Her and the sisters. All trouble."
The older man changed the subject and soon they were at the inn and Rosie was serving them and the strange girl in the window was gone from Saul's thoughts.
*
A few days later, he stayed behind to secure tarps over their tools and materials. A storm was coming, the sky bulging with heavy grey clouds and the wind lashing the tops of the trees into a frenzy already.
Heading back down the lane alone, he looked up towards the Hall and that was when he saw her. A small figure, out in the grounds, white gown whipping around her legs. She was watching him again.
He was transfixed. Dark hair flew around her head in the wind. Her gown was thin, a night-dress of some sort, and the wind blew and tugged at it, pulling it tight around the curves of her body. The collar was loose, the front buttoned low, and as it flapped he saw the white flesh of her breasts.
He was hard, instantly, cock straining against his trousers.
He didn't know what to do.
He wanted to go to her, to ask her name, to be close enough to see her expression, read her mood.
He wanted to turn and run, embarrassed by the intensity of his physical response, intimidated by how she stood stock still in the growing storm, just staring.