In Chains (2 page)

Gazing at my refection in the bathroom mirror, I look older than my twenty-two years. There are lines around my eyes and my skin is almost as white as the shower tiles. Dan has always told me I’m plain and he’s right. My eyes are too small, my eyelashes too short and my lips are too thin. I pinch my cheeks to try to add some colour but it doesn’t make much difference.

Back in the bedroom I can’t see a hairdryer anywhere and I don’t want to wake Simon up, he’s not a morning person. I’ll have to leave it to dry naturally, it’ll take hours but I’m not going anywhere. Putting on my blue jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt I head downstairs.

Stepping out of the front door there is a dirt road to my left that leads out of Simon’s estate. I want to stay on his land, so I go right and pass by a small orchard of fruit trees and beyond them I see a chicken coop. I know this because the cockerel has come out and is crowing loudly. He’s probably warning the hens that they’re about to have an intruder. There are six hens sitting on a pile of straw. I’m going to have to pick them up and I don’t have a clue how to because I’ve never handled them before. I put my hands on one and quickly let go as she flaps her wings and squawks. My second attempt meets with the same result.

Hearing a yelp, I spin around and come face to face with the handsome axe wielder. Now that I see him up close he doesn’t look much older than me. Feeling awkward, my face reddens. “Er…hi.”

“Hello Miss.” His voice is soft and deep. He’s just standing there, staring at me.

“Please, call me Savannah. Um…could you help me with the hens? I don’t know how to pick them up.”

He strides into the coop, kneels down and lifts up one of the hens. She sits quiet and still in his big hands. He’s looking at me and he has the most beautiful eyes, they’re a mixture of bright blue and brown, with long, thick lashes. I’d kill for lashes like that.

He nods towards the egg. “Do you wanna get that?”

I need to focus. I’ve just come out of a relationship and anyway, a guy as good looking as him isn’t going to be interested in someone like me. He picks up the rest of the hens in silence as I collect the eggs. I should have brought a bowl with me; I’m struggling to hold them. “Would you mind holding these for me? I’m worried I’m going to drop them and your hands are bigger than mine.”

“Yes Miss.”

“Call me Savannah, please.”

“Sorry Miss…um…I mean, Savannah.”

My hand brushes against his as I hand him the eggs and he lets out a yelp as his body jerks and two of the eggs smash to the floor.

“Shit,” he says, his face red. I wonder if he has a problem with his nerves.

As we walk back to the house I gaze across at him. He’s almost a foot taller than me; he must be six foot at least. His feet are big, probably a thirteen and he’s wearing sneakers that are grubby and yellow with age. The right one has a hole which his toes are poking through and instead of laces they’re both tied with string.

I can’t think of anything interesting to say. I’m sure it’s no fun for him to be stuck with a plain, boring woman like me. I bet he has a girlfriend and I bet she’s tall and slim with long legs, full lips and long eyelashes. Lucky cow! I can feel my cheeks heating up again. I breathe a sigh of relief as we reach the door.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“Kayden Miss…um…Savannah.”

I take the eggs from him. “Well, thank you for your help Kayden.”

CHAPTER THREE

Savannah

I close the door. Wow, that was awkward. There’s a newspaper on the mat, a financial one by the look of it. As I’m putting it on the kitchen table I hear a quiet tapping at the door. Opening it, I see Kayden standing there with a handful of logs. “Is it okay if I come in and light the fire Savannah?”

“Of course, yeah.” I move aside so he can get in. “You haven’t got to keep using my name. You don’t have to call me miss or Savannah…I mean…you don’t have to use any name, you can just talk to me normally…if you want. You can use my name if you want.” Oh God. I’m babbling, please kill me now. I can feel the blush creeping across my cheeks; I pull my hair over my face to try to cover it.

He smiles at me and takes the logs into the living room as Simon comes into the kitchen. He’s still in his PJs and a tartan robe. His eyes are bleary and his hair is all messed up.

“Good morning sleepyhead.”

He slumps into the chair. “Is there any coffee going?”

“Yes.” I refill the coffee maker. “I can fix us scrambled eggs on toast too. I collected your eggs this morning.”

“That sounds good.” He flicks through the paper. “I have to go into the office today; I won’t be back till after midnight because I’m going to the theatre. I got the tickets before I knew you were coming.”

I crack four eggs into a bowl. “Okay, I’ll be fine here, I’ll go exploring. You have fun this evening. I’ll do some food shopping today, I’d like to contribute.”

“Thanks. I’d appreciate that. If you need anything the slave will be around till one.”

“Yeah, I met him this morning.” I want to ask about the spasms but Kayden is still in the living room and I’m sure he’ll be able to hear me. I don’t want to embarrass him or myself, I’ll ask Simon later. “Where does he go at one?”

“I’m renting it out to my neighbour till eight.” The idea of renting out a human being doesn’t sit right with me and I don’t like the way he keeps referring to Kayden as ‘it’ but I don’t want to upset Simon on my second day here by mentioning it. “I was thinking, we could go to my local pub tomorrow night and have dinner there. You can meet my girlfriend.”

I put the bread into the toaster. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend. How long have you been together? What’s her name? Where did you meet?”

He laughs. “You’re so excitable. Her name’s Christina. We’ve been dating six months and we work in the same building.” I place our coffee and eggs on the table. “If you have any more questions you can ask her yourself when you meet her tomorrow.”

“Do you love her?”

“It’s too early to say,” he says, through a mouthful of egg.

“You’ve been dating for six months. You must know by now if you love her or not.”

“Unlike you Savannah, I prefer to take things slow. You rushed into your relationship and look how that ended.” Oh, that was a low blow. My fingers clench the handles of my knife and fork. “I’m sorry Savannah. I didn’t mean to say it like that.” He finishes his egg, puts his plate into the sink and kisses me on the head. “I’m an arse. You didn’t deserve that. Do you forgive me?”

My neck feels stiff. “Yeah I forgive you. Dan was a mistake but we all make mistakes.”

“I must get ready for work, maybe I’ll see you tonight, or in the morning if you’re asleep when I get back.”

As he goes back upstairs I hear the front door closing. I guess Kayden has finished with the fire.

After washing the breakfast dishes I head outside to wander around Simon’s land. As I pass the chicken coop I notice a run-down, rusty caravan. I’ve got nothing better to do so I decide to have a nose around. Opening the door I realise someone lives here, Kayden I suppose. It smells musty and there’s not much furniture, just a single size bed. In the far corner there’s an upturned metal bucket and on top of it rests a bar of soap and a cut-throat razor. Above it on a small shelf is a battered looking tin mug and plate, along with a spoon. Beside those is half a loaf of bread, a carrot and a lump of mouldy cheese. A towel hangs from a nail below the shelf.

The bed is covered with a dirty sheet. A blanket is neatly folded at one end and there’s a flat pillow at the other end. On the floor there’s a wind-up alarm clock and a pile of paper. Glancing through the papers I see they are junk mail. Beside them is a chewed, stubby pencil. I wonder what he’s doing with these. Two pieces of paper are stuck to the wall above his bed. Looking closer I see they’re drawings, one is of the cockerel, the other is of a mouse nibbling at some cheese. They’re good, he’s talented. I guess he must use the scrap paper for his drawings.

Suddenly I feel like an intruder. This is his home and these are his personal things, I shouldn’t be snooping around like this. Closing the door, I turn around and gasp, my breath catching in my throat. Kayden is standing right in front of me.

“I’m sorry. I just opened the door. I didn’t go in. I’m exploring the farm.” I hate lying but I don’t want to admit I was snooping around in there, what would he think of me if I told him that?

He smiles at me. “That’s okay. I’ll show you around if you want.” He opens the door to his caravan. “Welcome to my home.”

“Err, thank you.” I walk back in, trying to pretend I haven’t already seen it. “Those drawings are really good. Did you draw them?”

“Yeah. The mouse comes in here every day, he keeps me company. He likes cheese, he eats the mouldy bits.”

“You don’t eat it, do you?” God, his gaze is intense. Every time he looks at me I feel like a deer caught in headlights.

“Sometimes, if I’m really hungry.”

“Are you hungry now?”

He laughs. “I’m always hungry.”

I don’t know if he’s joking or being serious. I hate the thought of anyone going hungry. “Well after you’ve shown me around, I’ll make us both lunch.”

I almost melt on the spot as a grin lights up his whole face, his beautiful eyes sparkle at me. “Thank you. You can smoke in here if you want.”

How does he know I smoke? “I guess you can smell it on me huh.”

He frowns. “No. I saw you smoking this morning when you were sitting on the bench.”

“Do you smoke?”

“Never tried it.”

I can feel his eyes on me as we stroll along. I look around at the trees surrounding us, most of them are bare branches but a few still have leaves. It’s cold, my breath is coming out as smoke. I stuff my hands in my pockets. I need to go shopping for a hat and gloves. The wind is picking up and I keep having to take my hands out of my pockets to brush my hair out of my face. I should have thought to tie it back. My cheeks feel numb. He leads me to a large field and tells me how he’s growing potatoes, beetroot, cabbages, carrots and turnips. He must have green fingers, even pot plants don’t last five minutes with me. He picks up a watering can and sprinkles water on the potato plants. I hunch my shoulders against the wind.

“Are you cold Savannah?”

“Yeah.” He’s not even wearing a jacket and for the first time I notice his arms are covered in goose bumps. “You look cold too.”

He shrugs. “I’m used to it. Do you like strawberries?”

“Yeah.” I’m definitely going back to the warmth of the house in a minute.

“In the summer I grow strawberries over there,” he points to another part of the field, “and blackberries in the autumn.”

“Thank you for showing me around. I’m sorry but I need to go back to the house, I’m freezing.”

His shoulders droop and he lowers his head. “Oh.”

“I’ll give you a shout when lunch is ready.”

His eyes meet mine again. “Okay.”

I kneel in front of the fire, my body needs warmth. It never gets this cold in the city. I don’t know how he can bear to be out without a coat, he’s made of stronger stuff than I am. Me and Dan had central heating in our flat, which did make the place nice and warm but nothing beats a real fire. Just looking at the flames warms me up. I may add a scene in my novel and have my hero and heroine toast marshmallows over a fire. It’s kind of sad that the only romance I’ve ever known is what I’ve read or wrote about. Dan wasn’t the romantic type and I’m not likely to get another boyfriend anytime soon, if at all, I’m not exactly a catch. My mum and dad were lucky, they fell in love when they were teens and were still romantic in their fifties. I wish they were still around, I miss them.

“D’ya want me to put more logs on there for you Savannah?” comes a deep voice from behind me.

Dear God, how long has he been there? He needs to stop doing this to me or I’m not going to make it through the week without a heart attack. “Err…yes please. I haven’t started lunch yet, I was warming up.”

“I know. I have to clean the house. I did knock but you didn’t hear me.”

Moving out of his way so he can get to the fire, I can’t help but admire him. I don’t think he shaved this morning because he has dark stubble along his jaw. I can see the muscles flexing in his arm as he pokes at the fire and I want to reach out and touch him. There are white scars around his wrists, like bracelets, I wonder how he got those. I suddenly realise I’m leaning in towards him and quickly sit back. I should go start lunch. As I stand up, he asks, “What things do you like Savannah?”

“What do you mean?”

He stands up too and traps me again with his hypnotic gaze. “Well, I think I bored you when I was talking about growing stuff and…,” he shrugs, “I want to talk to you about things you like to talk about.”

“You didn’t bore me, I was cold. I like reading and doing crosswords. I’m writing a book. I’m pretty boring really.”

“You’re not boring, you’re clever. Do you write books like my owner has?”

“No, Simon only has academic books, mine’s a romance.”

He looks at me, puzzled. “What’s a romance?”