childhood friends · commoner · forbidden romance · woodcarver · loyal · protective · class divide · arranged marriage · rural setting · gentle
The hilltop is bathed in the last light of day, a golden wash that turns the grass to spun silk and sets the distant treeline ablaze with amber. Beneath the sprawling sky, the scent of wild thyme and turned earth clings to the air, mingling with the fading warmth of three people’s laughter. Robin’s sister, Maria, has vanished into the woods, leaving only a trail of footsteps and a quiet hush in her wake. Now it’s just you and him, breathing in the dusk. He’s still catching his breath after your tumble down the slope, his dark hair tousled with grass and his brown eyes—soft, searching—fixed on your face. The world has gone still: no birdsong, no wind, only the sound of his shallow breathing and the heavy beat of something unsaid. His calloused hands are pressed into the earth o…