Hello wondrous Ninjas!!
Work is going well this week. I haven’t made it on the mat
to train yet and I don’t know that I’ll get to until next week. My wonderful Mother
In Law will be there for the weekend along with some other members of my
husband’s family so I’ll be busy! Hopefully we’ll get a chance to go to the archery
range on Friday; apparently my MIL was in an archery league when she was in
college. That totally explains why my husband is a natural with a bow!
Today’s beautiful scent is another one of One Hand Washes
the Other’s solid perfumes: Raspberry Gingerale. This was a scent I got as a
free sample with one of my previous orders. I adore this scent!! Needless to
say, I went ahead and put a full sized solid in my next order. My husband is a
big fan of this one because it smells very fruity when it goes on. I’m fairly
certain he’s a fan of anything that smells like a food he would eat.
* Raspberry Gingerale: Ripe red raspberries floating
up and down in a pitcher of freshly-poured gingerale, thanks to help from
millions of fizzy pinprick bubbles. A touch of blackcurrant adds a syrupy
sweetness to the blend without weighing it down. A bright and lively scent!
* On me: First
nose for RG smells very very fruity. I adore this; it’s a warm raspberry smell
with very faint vanilla/ginger undertones. As this mellows down, it becomes
more of a warm ginger sugar scent with a faint strain of raspberry underneath.
*The Scene:
The baker had sent her
out to pick raspberries for the seasonal tart to be offered this week. Although
it was meant to be a task to get her out of the bakery, she really enjoyed
being out in the sun with the fragrant berries. The grove wasn’t hard to get to;
she made good time if she tucked up her skirt and frolicked through the field.
Far from prying eyes, she was free to do as she wanted. No one could tell her
to stop humming or pull her skirt all the way down over her shoes in modesty
here; she could revel in being young and alive.
He hadn’t stopped
thinking about the baker’s apprentice since he tucked the lilacs behind her ear
last week. Since he was a squire, although a lucky one with a kindly knight, he
wasn’t free to pursue the girl without telling the knight where he was going.
As kind as he was, the knight did need his squire most hours of the day for
running errands, keeping his armory spotless, and making sure any summons could
be answered immediately with a well-armed knight. The squire was daydreaming as
he was shining the knight’s helmet when the knight called for him from the
Great Hall.
Running to answer the
call, the squire nearly tripped over his own feet at the sight of the baker in
the hall discussing something in great detail with the knight. “We need you to run out to the berry fields.
I’m to have noble guests tonight and they have taste for raspberry tarts.” While
the sentence was simple enough, the squire wasn’t sure why this concerned him;
he didn’t usually procure ingredients for artisans. With a huff, the
baker threw a basket at him and spoke crossly, “Take this to my apprentice,
tell her to pick thrice the amount of berries and hurry back. That cow may yet
get to bake something with the size of this order.”
She was almost done
picking ginger for the sugared candies that were the baker’s vice when she
heard a rustling across the field. It was him. Her heart stopped and she
started furiously un-tucking her skirt from her boots to cover her knees and
she stopped humming. By the time he made it over to her. She was blushing
furiously and trying her hardest to wipe her hands on her apron so she wasn’t
muddy as he arrived.
She was blushing, and
trying very hard to change her appearance as he walked up. She’d looked lovely,
humming and smiling in the sun as she worked to delicately free the ginger from
the soil. Without the watchful eye of the town, she glowed with happiness and
was even more beautiful than he remembered her. His words came out cluttered as
he tried to convey why he interrupted her harvest. “Th-The baker sent me….More
berries… Three times more, this basket… Hurry back.” Well, that was
humiliating. He blushed profusely as he set the basket next to her and turned
around to leave.
Slightly stunned by
the shortness of the interaction she cried out, “Wait, which berries?”
He almost jumped when
she spoke, surprised. He turned around slowly and took a breath. “My master is
having guests. They will need more raspberry tarts. Thrice the amount of
raspberries and be swift with it.” That sounded like a command from his own
lips! “Um, I could help you pick if you want…”
Thrice?! She wasn’t
even sure if the groves held that many berries this early in the season and she
certainly wasn’t sure she could find that many ripe patches before the sun went
down. Exasperated, she picked up her ginger and went towards the nearest berry
bush, calling back to him, “Well hurry up, there’s probably not even enough to
fill the order! And be careful, berries are delicate. Don’t squish them or you’ll
stain the basket.”
Stunned at the demand,
he picked up the basket and followed her to the grove. The bushes were prickly
but she was deft at freeing the fragrant fruits from their stems without
getting pricked. She had to pause and teach him tricks to avoid getting stung
by the thorns but soon they were filling the baskets at a steady pace. Side by
side, shoulders sometime brushing and causing a blush, they finished their gathering before
sundown.
Smiling, she thanked
him as she packed the baskets for a swift run back to the bakery. She gave a
small nervous giggle as she blushed and kissed his cheek before running across
the field.
Once again left
without words, he watched her go as he pressed his hand to the place her lips
had landed. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he leaned down to pick up
his discarded vest, safe from berry stains. Her basket of carefully cleaned ginger was
sitting there, full and abandoned. A twang of anger and fear went through him, remembering
the way the baker had slapped her for dropping the croissants. With quick
movements, he wrapped the basket in his vest and took off in the direction of
the bakery to make sure the order was properly filled.
