Chapter 2

She frowned at me as I stared through the window. It had been unseasonably rainy the past few weeks, causing me to stay in the town longer than I had anticipated.

The people were nice enough but I was eager to move on, I had been hoping to get hired on board a ship heading south to the warmer climes. The weather was starting to turn cold and if the didn't stop soon I would either have to travel in the rain or stay here until spring. As I grew lost in thoughy hardly moving with my eyes fixed on the rain drenched horizon she coughed none to politely.

As I turned my head she frowned again, "you gonna order something?"

I nodded and asked her for a mug of ale, and some stew, she nodded brusquely and trundled off. The heavyset woman who ran the inn was nice enough but she didn't like freeloaders. Either you worked or you paid. Although I had reason enough to suspect she was less cordial towards me for another reason. Her young daughter had become somewhat infatuated with me. A skinny little slip of a girl, barely old enough to marry.

I had swept into town like so many travellers before me, and I had been staying in the inn for only a few days when I over heard the mother and daughter fighting. Normally I would have just moved away but I had heard my name so I sat and feigned sleep. The daughter was on love with me, and the mother was doing everything she could to persuade her daughter against the idea.

I was going to leave the next day, except when I was heading to the door the inn keeper shook her head and informed me that the autumn rains had come late and were now hitting in full force. The storm was far too strong for any person to travel, so I relented and returned to my small room. I tried to stay out of the way, and keep my distance from the girl, but she would find ways to speak with me and follow me around.

Finally after a week she had gotten up the courage to talk to me. She told me all about her life here at the small town, and how she had been picked on all throughout her life. It was sad in a way, how she seemed to think that I would stay to protect her from a harm that had already been done to her.

Each day I would sit in the same chair, and she would bring me breakfast and we would talk for a short while before her mother would rush by and shoo her off. Leaving me to sit and stair at the dark clouds and the pouring rain.

Another week passed, and than another with no change in the weather, I started talking with one of the inn's regulars and he'd say the rain should let up soon, and he'd say how nice I was for taking time to speak with the girl. I frowned and mentioned I had over heard her plans to marry me. He laughed it off and responded, "she does that near everytime someone new comes along. Poor girl's hearts been broken alot since she got old enough to marry. She falls for one of you rough and tumble types and than sits in her room and crys for a week when he leaves. "

"Don't you worry about her. Life goes on and more people come to the town, some poor guy might come along and marry her and get her with child and she'll be happy, but you don't seem the type to settle down, if you don't mind me saying."

I smiled and nodded and sipped at my ale, that old man seemed to be able to read me pretty easily.

The night before I finally left she came to me in my room, I would have none of her, and she cried and begged for me to stay. She said she could tell I was a good man and I'd be a good husband but I merely shook my head, and told her that I wasn't. Her hands reached for mine and I pulled away. Her tears flowed just as heavily as the rain tapping at the small window in my room.

I stood staring at her for a moment before I shook my head, "you're a nice girl and someday you'll meet a nice man. I am not that man, I will be leaving tommorrow morning I doubt I'll ever return this way, so it's best you forget these fantasies of yours, and listen to your mother. In all my years travelling I have learned a few things, love isn't somethign that you find, it will find you when you're ready for it."

She continued to cry even as I left the room and slipped out of the inn door int the dark and wet night.

I lied somewhat after my travels south I did eventually come by, the fat woman who ran teh bar was replaced by a tall brown haired man, and his wife, a thin red haired woman, her eyes lit up when she saw me but the light drifted off and she greeted me with a stiff nod. As I sat down at the same table I sat at so many years before she brought me a bowl of stew and a mug of ale. Wiping her hands on her apron she sat down across from me. She smiled at me as I turned to look at her, the innocent young girl had become a beautiful woman. With a glow of happiness about her, my eyes turned to spy a small boy sitting by the fire playign with a wooden horse. I turned back to her and she merely nodded. Placing a hand on the top of mine she stood and smiled, "you were right."

That was all she had to say I turned to my meal with a smile and as I walked down the road into heading north her voice echoed in my mind, "you were right."