“What are you thinking?” his voice purred into her ear.  Her gaze flickered away from him to the trees with golden leaves.  The brown roots poked through the yellowing grass beneath it, piles of fire colored leaves surrounded them.

“Nothing…” she softly answered, not noticing the displeased look that instantly possessed his face.  A golden leaf fell, slowly floating to the ground unharmed.  Forget the red ones, the brown ones, the orange ones, and even the still slightly green ones; she only cared about the golden ones.

“A woman’s mind is never blank,” he retorted.  She barely kept her gaze from jerking to him, stopping instead on an open spot of the yellow-green grass.  Broken leaves decorated the otherwise blank space.  Near-by was a sturdy wooden fence lined with curious horses as a young boy giggled and pet them excitedly.

“Perhaps mine is,” she slowly replied as her gaze fell to the young boy with fiery red hair.  Her cousin; it was her duty to watch him today, unfortunately she’d run into this man, a suitor her parents adored.  A soft chuckle escaped his lips.  She didn’t know he was studying a chestnut colored horse now instead of her.

“Yours is the least likely to ever be blank, even in death,” he stated.  She shivered.  The cool breeze had no power to penetrate her decorative shawl and jacket, but his words, she wagered, could pierce even the thickest of stone walls.  It appalled her how well he knew her.  Move, she told herself, and she did so.  With casual steps, she walked over to the wooden fence and to the chestnut mare, feeling his gaze follow her every movement.  She wondered how the horses could stand being caged behind the fence, with nothing but dirt and their own toilet at their feet.  Their only shelter from the cool wind was their stalls, all of which were currently closed.  His soft steps made it known to her that he was behind her.

“My head, and therefore my mind, dear sir, shall decay into a tranquil silence in death,” she told him.  Her right hand gently caressed the forehead of the mare.  It let out a harsh breath, letting a foul smell touch her nose.  She barely refrained from showing displeasure, knowing the man behind her would find out and pounce on an opportunity.  A near-by horse whinnied, one shifted with a thump after it let its leg down.  The boy giggled again.

“A woman as beautiful as you should never decay,” he softly whispered, getting too close to her ear for her comfort.  She smelled unlike the ladies of the town, nothing like rose petals or lilacs or such scents, rather she smelled subtly of cooking and chores.  She smelled truly clean, unlike the others.

“It’s a fact of life; we shall all die one day,” she darkly remarked with a pleasant smile toward him.  He moved back slightly; the unpleasantries common women spoke of that ladies didn’t.  Her gaze shifted to her cousin. “Come on Joseph, your mother should be expecting you home soon.”