“So…” Andrew’s voice carried through the otherwise quiet air. I swear it made a blood vessel burst in the back of my head. “I guess we’d better get to work then. Looks like we have a lot to push through before the midday break.”

He stood, casually resting his hands behind his head with a slick smile on his lips. For a moment, I swear his eyes roamed up and down me.

“You’re standing on top of a barley shoot,” I hissed at him before dropping back down to my knees and burying my fingers in the dirt before I ended up hauling off and hitting him.

If Andrew had half of any sense, he’d have left that open space between us. And if he’d had any sense at all, he’d have kept his mouth shut. Unfortunately he did not.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten soil underneath my fingernails,” he said as he plopped right down next to me and proceeded to stick his hands in my space. “Not as long as it’s been since we’ve been alone together though.”

“That was a handful of days ago…” I bit back the ‘stupid’ I oh-so-desperately wanted to call him. That was not the reaction he was obviously hoping for. Andrew pulled back. I took the opportunity to edge myself further away from him.

“Well…” he floundered, blinking at me. “That’s not exactly what I meant. I was referring to our time back in school. You sat in front of me, don’t you remember.”

The back of my head twinge at the phantom braid pull. “Oh how could I ever forget… You sat behind me until Katherine Miller asked Father Donovan to sit in my seat instead.”

Andrew had spent the rest of that year staring across the classroom at me, surly because Katherine had stood up in the middle of class and screamed at him the first time he’d tried pulling on her braid. Both of them had had to put their noses on the chalkboard but Katherine had a smug smirk on her face through the entire hour whenever she glanced over at Andrew. He missed my quiet endurance of his antics.

He kept talking without really even noticing that I had little interest to listen to him yammer on. “You know, Father was really upset that you didn’t stick around long enough to have tea or midday meal with us the other day.”

“I’m sorry for any unhappiness I might have caused him,” I grumbled under my breath.

Andrew inched his way closer to me. His hands nearly brushed over mine a couple of times. Gods! He was so deliberate that it wasn’t even comical. Not even ten minutes after Father left us alone, and Andrew was practically throwing himself at me. And people said I had no self respect!

“When Merrik came by afterwards to offer me this job, Father suggested that maybe you could come over for supper.”

“I’m busy.”

“I haven’t even given you a specific night?”

“Doesn’t matter,” I told him. “I’m not interested and never will be. Please send your father my apologies.”

Andrew rocked back on to his heels. His eyebrow shot up as he looked at me with utter confusion. “Don’t you think you should be a little more agreeable with me since I’m going to be here for the rest of the season.”

“Father said that I had to show you how to do your duties and welcoming you to our home. He said nothing about suffering your presence any later than that,” I snapped.

“I’m not feeling very welcome at the moment.” He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me. I took the opportunity to move away again and put some distance between us.

“Good,” I told him simply.

“You do realize that your father needs my help.” Andrew’s voice slid into a snide tone that made my skin crawl. “I know the pair of you are aiming for three thousand gold pieces this harvest. Word around town is that it’ll be the largest harvest you’ve had since your mother died.”

“Didn’t realize that the magister had loose lips… or that you frequented the Inner Circle.”

The way he spoke made my blood boil. He talked like he had some kind of secret he was looming over my head. That he knew something that I didn’t.

“I know that you and Merrik can’t get that profit without me. You need three people to pull that kind of harvest off.”

Understanding washed over me. The magister himself had said that Father and I hadn’t had a harvest like that since Mother had passed. Since we’d been a team of three rather than two. So nice to see that Father was hoping to make the trio again by setting me up on the worst possible kind of awkward courtship.

With my anger seething, I bit my tongue and ripped up weeds instead of allowing myself to show Andrew that he was getting underneath my skin. Dirt actually hit my cheek as I flung some pitiful weed off to the side.

“Don’t you think that means you should be a little nicer to me? Especially since I could make or break you this year.”

Andrew leaned down close to me. His words whispered over my shoulder, breath blowing into my ears and nose. Whatever he’d last had to eat or drink didn’t smell anywhere close to pleasant.

I pulled back, abruptly, hands crushing into the dirt. Andrew looked like the cat who’d just cornered a mouse. The only problem with that was I wasn’t a mouse. And Andrew definitely was no cat. “Don’t act like you don’t oh so desperately need to be here, Andrew!” I hissed, shoving him backwards.

My hands left dark stains on his shoulders. He toppled backwards as he lost his balance. It was his turn to be the mouse as he looked up at me, propped up on his elbows in the soil, with wide eyes and a slack jaw big enough to catch fish.

I jammed my finger into his chest, “When was the last time your family made anything more than just barely enough to cover your taxes and to feed yourselves? Without your ‘master hunting abilities’ to bridge the gap?”

“Mayor Terrin keeps hiking up the taxes year by year to Baron Harwood. You’d know this if you didn’t act like you were better than all the rest of us!” snapped Andrew as he regained what little pride and dignity he had left.

“They’re up by two percent from last year. They’ve grown about eight percent in the last five. You think I don’t know this shite? Father drills it into my head every damn season! And! Better than the rest of you? Gods! How long have you and Father been talking about me?”

“Aye, you heard me right Lena!” Andrew got to his feet. I didn’t like that he suddenly towered over me so I jumped up too. “Everyone knows that you strut around thinking you’re better than the common farmer. Thinking that you can just waltz up to the Mayoral manse and go to parties there. Chasing after that elfin ranger.”

“Why shouldn’t I be able to do those things? What reserves parties and Aust’s company for those of the Inner Circle? What makes them better than me? What gives them to right to look down their noses at me and cast me aside simply because my family makes their living by farming?”

Andrew didn’t answer right away. So I did.

“Absolutely nothing! There’s no shame in farming. It’s a respectable job and Father says we’re respectable. So then why doesn’t anyone show it?”

Why did Clive slam the door in my face? Why did Father brush off my concerns and questions? Why did Andrew think he was entitled to my time?

“Learn to accept your place. It’ll do you some good considering the fact that no one would look at you twice if your father weren’t so successful.”

My thoughts came to a screeching halt. My mouth fell open.

“Wouldn’t look twice at me?” I repeated, voice falling an octave as I stepped towards him.

Andrew clearly had no sense of self preservation. “I have five older siblings and live in a home with barely four rooms. It’s just you and your father in that two story house and have spare coin to pay a farmhand. You’re loud and brash and refuse to stay in your station. That puts a damper on your prospects no matter how beneficial marrying into your family might be.”

Of all the things I’d ever thought about, being Woodhearst most eligible farmer bachelorette because of money was never one of them.

Andrew was still speaking. He shrugged his shoulders and relaxed a bit. “Maybe I can help you overcome your faults. I’d make a good partner if you’d give me a chance. Perhaps even a good lover…”

Thwack!

Andrew’s head flung sideways, words taken right off his tongue viciously. He had dirt streaks on his cheek to match those on his shirt. My hand was still in the air as told him in a deadly quiet voice. “I am not your ticket out of a dismal financial situation. And if you think that you have any chance of wooing me then you are clearly more touched in the head than I realized. My father might pay your salary for the time being but if you think for a moment that you’re the only one who can be a farm hand then you are sorely mistaken.”

He rubbed his jaw, pulling his hand away as if he fully expected to find a piece of his face in it. “What the hell possessed you to do that…” he said.

“Figure it out Andrew. Maybe you’ll finally learn something about me.”

I turned on my heels and strode away. “Where are you going?” he called after me.

“To the Eastern field to pull weeds. When you’re finished here, get to the barn. You heard what Father said. Do it well or you’ll probably be out of a job by nightfall!”

“By myself? That’s too much work to complete for one person!”

“Have a taste of what it would mean to marry into my family!” I snarled over my shoulder.

Then I walked off without another word. I walked right to the Eastern field. And then I kept going. Over the dirt path that lead to Erickson’s farm and straight into the first row of trees.

If Father could afford to hire a farmhand to belligerently woo me in my own home, then he could certainly afford to have me walk off in protest for a morning.