The next day seemed to go by achingly slow as Lady Gwendolyn waited impatiently for the afternoon when she could go to the meadow and meet Al again. Not only was he charming and handsome... but he was exciting... something new that she had never experienced before. Her life had been incredibly boring before, just day after day of the same things, now she had something new to look forward. Freedom from the keep and all its repetitions would have been enough to entice her, but having the excitement that had coursed through her at the end of their last meeting just made it all the more enticing.
Preparing for another afternoon of "illness", the night before she pretended to be feeling a little sickly and to only pick at her food... really though she ate plenty to fill her stomach it was just tidbits and nibbles eaten over a long period of time. In the morning she "tried" to feel better by going out in the garden with Brandy, walking through the sweet-scented flowers and elaborately pruned bushes. Artfully, she sat on a bench every time she came to one, pretending some weariness. It all paid off, by the afternoon her pretty blonde maid was insisting that her Lady take some rest, she would make her excuses to the household.
Hiding her eagerness Gwendolyn got into bed, and told Brandy that she would take her sleeping potion and just rest for the afternoon... her maid was free to go out. Happily, the bouncy buxom blonde scampered out the door, intent on hunting down the stable boy she had been charming. Once her quick steps faded from earshot, Gwendolyn hurriedly changed her clothing and snuck out of the keep. Really, everything was so much easier in these clothes! With her hair covered and in simple cotton clothes she really looked no different from any number of young girls who lived within the keep and the surrounding village. It was quite easy to walk freely down the street to the gate where she could meet Al in the meadow. What she hadn't been expecting were some of the frank gazes and crude suggestions that were made to her occasionally by passing young men, admiring her fit figure in the simple cloth. Any of them would have died of shock and fear upon learning her true identity, but Gwendolyn didn't know that so cheeks just flushed prettily as her steps minced her closer to her much-anticipated meeting.
Running out into the field, she spotted Al waving to her at the far end and she ran laughing to him, actually plunging past him into the forest. Calling after her and laughing he chased her, and they ran happily through the trees and brush, playfully yelling teasing insults at each other. Gwendolyn hadn't had so much fun since she was a child playing tag. Eventually, breathless, she allowed him to catch her, shrieking merrily as he appeared in front of her from around a large tree. His arms flying about her waist, he pulled her to the ground with him, both of them giggling madly.
"I've caught you at last you saucy wench!" he said cheekily, his handsome face only inches away from her own.
"I am no wench," she protested, mockingly insulted, amber eyes sparkling as she was filled with giddiness. Never had she had a man so close to her, and here he was halfway atop her! She certainly felt like a wench... but that was not the game.
"No," he said, his voice lower, softer, with a more gentle quality, "No, you shall be the Lady of my Heart and I your noble and adoring knight. What is my Lady Gwen's pleasure?" The unexpected heat in his brown eyes as he gazed at her made her feel lightheaded, excitement running through her innocent body.
"Well then Good Sir Knight Al," she said playfully, trying to hide these new and intense feelings that were assaulting her behind a façade of mockery, "First you could allow me to stand and stop crushing me!"
