"I am used to hard work, Señor," Alannah muttered distractedly, uncomfortable under his scrutiny. "As a child I'd always dreamed of working outside, doing something truly useful, something that wasn't fake, like adorning an estate house. No one thought I'd last a week on my own when I left home, but I did more than merely survive..I thrived! I was not as well off as I had once been of course, but that was a small price to pay for being left alone . . . I've always wanted just to be left alone . . . to be free of the unreasonable demands of tyrants."
"You don't see poverty as a sort of tyrant? And please, the name is Dominic." he asked her sardonically.
She shrugged. "At least it's a tyrant that I can meet on my own terms, Señor…Dominic."
He seemed to take a fresh look at her at that. "True. What about the belongings you left behind in Germany?"
Avoiding his eye, she said, "I sold everything of value I owned, that had any connection to my former life. I no longer own anything of value, sentimental or otherwise."
"You would simply start a new life here - why is that?"
"Yes . . . here, or wherever else I end up. And they why is none of your concern. And in case you haven't heard I am not traveling alone."
"Ah, yes Nicolò the new gardener." He said and then he considered her word in silence for a long moment. At last, he said evenly, "Take some time here, before making your mind up about what you want to do with your furtue. Then, after two weeks are up, let me know what you wish to do with your life. Is it a deal?"
She looked up and, catching the amused glint in his eye, gave him an unwilling, small, wan of a smile in return. "Alles klar, Señor..Dominic. It's a deal."
She spent the rest of the day wandering the lands about the Chateau and along the lakeshore, feeling curiously detached. By evening she was spent, between the emotional breakdown earlier in the afternoon and the exploring, she was very tired. She wanted nothing more than to go to bed early, but she needed to see Nicolò.
They sat and talked for what seemed like hours. She told him about her past, and what she was running from. His kisses did something to her and if she was going to explore that the Senorita Beringer was right, Nicolò had to know all about her. She even told him her deep secret and that at 19 she was still a virgin. No man was to touch her in that way until she wed.