Where Nothing Ill Can Dwell

Chapter 11 - Miranda

I'd set out to gather herbs for cooking and to concoct more of the antidote for the absinthian spores, but my thoughts of Ferdinand hampered by my work.

I already knew he was handsome. From the moment I first laid eyes on him, I was ready to acknowledge that, even though I'd never really seen another human male in person. His looks pleased me.

But that was nothing compared to the way I felt in his presence. He'd told me I was beautiful. He acted like he wanted to touch me, but not in the rough way Caliban did. Ferdinand's touch was soft and gentle. He handled me like an absinthian bush he feared disturbing, yet couldn't resist examining.

Well, maybe not quite in such a scientific manner. He'd touched my hand, my hair. I'm sure if given the opportunity, he'd touch my face based on the way he stared at it.

Of course, I wouldn't mind him touching me there. Or anywhere else, for that matter. I craved the sensation of his warm hand on my arm, my shoulder, the small of my back. And for some unexplained reason, I was curious to find out what it would be like if he hugged me, if he wrapped his arms around me.

And for the life of me, I couldn't understand his seeming fascination with my lips. He kept staring at them, almost to the point where I worried that I had something stuck in my teeth.

I finally gathered the ingredients I'd set out to find and returned to the compound, only to freeze the moment I stepped through the gate.

Ferdinand was working the fields Caliban normally tended, but that wasn't what made my breath catch. It was him. All of him. He'd unzipped the top part of his uniform and shrugged it off his shoulders until it hung low on his narrow hips. A sheen of sweat glistened over his dark skin, highlighting the rippling muscles of his arms, his shoulders, his chest and abdomen. He was the perfect specimen of a human male­, and I couldn't look away. A rush of warmth flowed through my veins that had little to do with the hot sun overhead, and my fingers longed to touch him, to feel his smooth flesh as it moved.

"Miranda!"

I flinched as soon as I heard my mother call my name, and the second I met Ferdinand's gaze, my cheeks burned. Did he know I'd been watching him? Did he have any idea how he fascinated me? How he made me feel things I'd never experienced before?

I hurried inside, my attention focused on my rudimentary shoes.

"Where have you been?" Mom asked.

"Gathering." I pulled my morning's haul from my bag and showed it to her. "I had to use some of my absinthian antidote on Ferdinand yesterday and—"

"You are to stay inside the compound unless I give you permission to leave."

My pulse hammered in my ears. Did she know about this morning?

Before today, I would've nodded my head in compliance, but for some strange reason, I questioned her. "Why?"

Mom arched a brow, and even though my stomach knotted in fear, I held my head up.

"Caliban is loose out there," she replied after a moment. "I'm tracking him, but I want to make sure you're nowhere near him."

I nodded, hiding my relief in the act. She didn't know I'd disobeyed her.

After I'd hung my herbs up to dry, I wandered over to the window to continue watching Ferdinand. The initial shock had worn off, and once I was no longer completely mesmerized by him, I found myself laughing at his awkward, jerky motions. He acted like he'd never handled a hoe before. My giggles grew louder with every ill-planned swing, and I knew I should stop him before he destroyed the entire crop, even if we didn't need the food grown there to sustain us.