Chapter 13
Tae awoke early in the next morning to the sound of birds chirping in the tree outside his windows. Rolling over onto his back, he gazed at a bright blue sky filled with huge, puffy white clouds, the sort of sky that positively beckoned him outdoors.
Washing and dressing hurriedly, he went downstairs to the kitchens to get food for Willie. Your Grace Jungkook had sarcastically asked if he could push a plow or drive a nail or milk a cow. He couldn't do the first two, but he had often seen cows milked at home and it didn't look particularly difficult. Besides, after his trip coming here, any sort of physical activity was appealing.
He was about to leave the kitchens with a plate of scraps when a thought struck him. Ignoring the outraged stare of the man in the white apron, who Seojoon had told him last night was the chef and who was watching him as if he were a madman invading his pot-bedecked kingdom, he turned to Mrs Jung.
Taehyung
"Mrs.Jung, is there anything I could do – to help here in the kitchen, I mean?"
Mrs Jung
Mrs. Jungs's hand flew to her throat. "No, of course not."
Taehyung
Tae sighed. "In that case, could you tell me where I will find the cows?"
Mrs Jung
"The cows?" Mrs. Jung gasped. "What – whatever for?"
Taehyung
"To milk them," Tae said.
The woman paled but said nothing, and after a puzzled moment, Tae shrugged and decided to find them himself. He headed out the back door to search for Willie. Mrs. Jung wiped the flour off her hands and headed straight for the front door to find Mr.Jung.
As Tae neared the compost pile, his eyes nervously scanned the woods for a sign of the dog. Willie – what an odd name for such a large, ferocious animal, he thought. And then he saw him lurking just inside the perimeter of the trees, watching him. The short hairs on the back of his neck stood up, but he carried the bowl of scraps as close to the woods as he dared.
Taehyung
"Here, Willie," he coaxed softly. "I've brought your breakfast. Come get it."
The huge beast's eyes flickered to the plate in his hand, but he stayed where he was, watchful, alert.
Taehyung
"Won't you come a little closer?" Tae continued
Determined to befriend Your Grace Jungkook's dog, since he could never befriend the man.
The dog was no more cooperative than his master. The beast refused to be coaxed and kept his threatening gaze focused on Tae. With a sigh, Tae put the plate down and walked away.
A gardener directed him to where the cows were kept, and Tae walked into the spotless barn, his nose tickled by the scent of the sweet-smelling hay. He paused uncertainly as a dozen of cows looked up, regarding him with huge, liquid brown eyes as he walked along the row of stalls. He stopped at one with a stool and bucket hanging on the wall, thinking that this cow would surely be the most likely prospect for milking.
He said to the cow, patting its smooth face reassuringly while he tried to bolster his courage. Now what the moment was at hand, Tae wasn't at all certain he remembered exactly how one went about milking a cow.
Stalling for time, he strolled around the cow and plucked a few pieces of straw from its tail, then reluctantly took down the stool and placed the bucket in position beneath the animal's pendulous udder. He sat down and slowly rolled up his sleeves. Unaware of the man who had just stalked into the barn, he stroked the animal's flank and drew a long hesitant breath.
Taehyung
"I may as well be perfectly honest with you," he confessed to the cow.
Taehyung
"The truth is – I haven't actually done this before."
Tae's rueful admission stopped Jungkook in mid-stride at the entrance to the stall, and his eyes warmed with fascinated amusement as he gazed at the young man. Seated upon the milking stool as relax as he can as if he were seated upon a throne, Taehyung presented a very fetching picture. His head was bent slightly as he concentrated on the task before him with delightful view of his patrician profile with its elegant cheekbones and delicate nose. Sunlight from the window above glinted his hair, turning it into a shimmering cascade of black waterfall. Long curly eyelashes cast shadows on his smooth cheeks as he caught his lower lip between his teeth and reached down to move the bucket an inch forward.
The action drew Jungkook's gaze to the showing neck and chest of the young man, smooth and white as it can be, Tae's next words made his shoulders shake with laughter.
Taehyung
"This," he told the cow in a revolted voice as he stretched his hands forward
Taehyung
"is going to be as embarrassing for me as it is for you."
Tae touched the cow's fleshy nipples and jerked his hand away with a loud-
Then he tried again. He squeezed twice, quickly, then he leaned back and gazed hopefully at the bucket. No milk dropped into it.
Taehyung
"Please, please, don't make this difficult," he implored the cow, his hand clasped together in front of his face.
Twice more he repeated the same process, and still nothing happened. Frustration made him yank too hard the next time, which brought the cow's head swinging around as it glared reproachfully at him.
Taehyung
"I'm doing my part," Tae said glaring back, "the least you could do is yours!"
Behind him, a laughing masculine voice warned.
Jeon Jungkook
"You'll curdle her milk if you glower at her like that."
Tae jumped and whirled around the stool, sending his hair falling over his eyes
Taehyung
"You!" he burst out, flushing in mortification at the scene the older guy had obviously witnessed.
Taehyung
"Why must you always creep up on people without a sound? The least you could do is –"
Jeon Jungkook
"Knock?" Jungkook suggested, his eyes glinting with laughter. With slow deliberation, he lifted his hand and rapped his knuckles twice upon the wooden beam.
Jeon Jungkook
"Do you always talk to animals?" he asked conversationally.
Tae was in no mood to be mocked, and he could see by the gleam in the tall guy's eyes he was doing exactly that. With as much dignity as he could muster, he stood up, brushed his pants, and tried to walk past the mocking guy.
Jungkook hand shot out and caught Tae's arm in a firm but painless grip
Jeon Jungkook
"Aren't you going to finish milking?"
Taehyung
"You've already seen that I can't."
Tae put his chin up and looked him right in the eye.
Taehyung
"Because I don't know how."
One dark brow lifted over an amused dark eye.
Jeon Jungkook
"Do you want to learn?"
Taehyung
"No," Tae said, angry and humiliated.
Taehyung
"Now, if you'll remove your hand from my arm—" He jerked his arm free without waiting for him to acquiesce.
Taehyung
"—I'll try to find some other way to earn my keep here."
Tae felt Jungkook's narrowed gaze on him as he walked away, but his thoughts soon shifted to Willie as he neared the house. He saw the dog, lurking just inside the woods, watching him. A chill skittered down his spine, but he ignored it. He had just been intimidated by a cow, and he adamantly refused to be cowed by a dog.
Jungkook watched him walk away, then shrugged off the memory of an angelic-looking milkman with sunlight in his hair and went back to the work he'd abandoned when Jung rushed into his study to inform him that Tae had gone to milk the cows.
Sitting down at his desk, he glanced at his secretary.
Jin JK's Secretary
"You were dictating a letter to your man in Brunei, my lord."
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