*Edited*

"Mother." Grace announced her arrival home in a softly, melodic voice as she opened the cracked and broken wooden door to the two roomed shack that they lived in. She pulled down her hood, releasing her flame hair and placed her basket onto the ground before she began to untie her cloak and hang it on a small hanging stone that protruded from the moldy stone wall.

" Ah, my dear child. How fair was the market?" She asked in a weak and frail voice as she sat on her bed of hay. Grace walked in with a small bounce in her dainty step. She gracefully dropped to her knees next to the small stove that sat at the far end of the house, to the right of her mother's bed and began piling small piece of wood onto of the cold cinders.

" The same as always, mother." She informed her and smiled a kind, soft as she finished building the fire. Grace stood up and straightened her dress; wiping her dirty hands on a cloth; in an attempt to clean them as she reached into the basket. Grace took hold of the bread and walked back around to her smiling mother. She handed the bread to her tenderly with a saddened smile.

"Here, I am afraid this was all I could get. Money is small as of late, seeing that people are no longer want our healing." Grace told her as she tiled her head softly to the side. Her mother took the bread and pulled a slither from the golden loaf; She gingerly placed the piece into her mouth and smiled at the melting taste.

" Well, it is better than naught." Her mother smiling gently to her daughter as she placed the bread onto a plate that sat upon a glory box next to the make shift bed. Grace released a soft sighed as she lifted herself back up to her feet.

" I am going to go out and collect herbs and berries for dinner." Grace chimed as she bent down and placed a easy kiss on her mothers leathery forehead and floated gently back to the door of their broken house. She grabbed her cloak and opened the protesting door before looking back to her mother.

" I will be back soon to light the fire." She whispered as she walked out and closed the door behind her. As she walked away from her shack and brought her cloak up and around her shoulders, skillfully tying it around her neck. Grace took step after step over the rotten forest floor. Grace left her hair loss to fly within the gusts of soft spring wind like a fire ravaging dry bush. Her blue eyes searched the greenery below her feet for rip and ready to eat berries along with any herbs she could use for dinner as well as medicine.

Grace smiled as she stepped gently through the high knee length green and gold grass twisted with meadow flowers of all colours. She sang a soft happy tune in the native Gaelic tongue of her homeland as she skipped and twisted around smiling happily, letting all her worries disappear for just this short period of time; before she had to face her reality once again.

The setting sun's ray shone softly down onto her green dress and her smiling face, giving her it's gentle spring heat. She picked up the front of her dress, holding it tightly in her hands and ran forward out of the forest lining. The trees whirled pasted her as her old shoes covered her feet. She continued to run and sing, with several twists in her steps as if she was dancing with the forest as her partner.

She finally stepped out of the forest and onto a cliff which looked out and over stretches of undiscovered sea. The sound of the waves jumping up onto the rocky cliff meters below her. Grace calmly walked over to the edge, allowing the salty wind to wipe through her hair. Her eyes closed as the feeling of peace washed over her gently. With her hands out to the side of her, she felt -for a moment- that she was flying like a sparrow flying swiftly through the breeze. After a moment she sighed and relaxed before she spun around on her right foot and walked back into the forest weaving in between the tree as she continued to sang her gentle folk song, feeling the world fall away leaving her in the forest. She stopped and gently finished her singing as she held onto a thick tree, resting the right side of her forehead onto the bark with a faint smile. She let her mind wonder to a life of comfort and happiness; one that she could never obtain in her life.

The sound of a twig snapping pulled her from her little world of fantasies as she forced her head around to turn in the direction it sounded from. There standing a few meters away was the man that could easily strike fear within the hearts of war hardened soldiers, standing only meters away from Grace: was John. His feet hit the ground softly and calmly as he walked a gentle slow pace, over to her with his hands up showing he meant her no harm.

" I mean you no harm." His deep voice sounded so sincer, but Grace knew far better than to trust the sound of a man's voice. Grace scanned her eyes over him searching for anything that could cause her harm. What Grace's sky blue eyes landed on caused her stepped back away from him timidly as her eyes stayed trained upon the pistol, which was settled in his waist band of his light brown trousers. Fear echoed her eyes as her mind drifted back to the memories of the thunderous sound of the pistol that shot her father dead when she was ten years young. Something that was edged into her mind, something she will never forget.

" That is only for my safety. I will not use it upon you, fair lady. I promise that." He spoke to her as she continued to edge backwards as he stepped forwards.

" Promises can be broken." Grace said shaking her head as her heart picked up and launched into her throat.

" Then I give you my word." John told her eager to convince her that he did not mean her any harm. Grace's mind fluttered with so many thoughts, but than stopped on the memory of him beating the poor man at the market. Without a second thought she then turned and picked up her dress, quickly ran from him. Her red hair flaring around like flames wildly calming fuel.

" Please! I only wish to talk to you!" John called after her as he struggled to keep up with her pace, jumping and twisting past the trees. It became clear very quickly to John that the flame haired woman -who he found so interesting- had undoubtedly grew up within this forest, learning every inch of it. Grace ran in the opposite direction of her house, not wanting to lead the tyrant to her sickened mother. He followed Grace by bursting out from the tree line and found himself standing on the cliff not too far from the town. This cliff was a well known cliff with many stories to it. The Cliff of Gully was well known through out his town and the surrounding areas. He looked around and could not see the mysterious woman he had chased, but he was most certain that she had not slipped past him either. He was about to turn back around, when the moving of rocks caught his attention.

" Please, I mean you no harm. On that you have my word. Look, I am placing the pistol down." John spoke as he slowly and cautiously took the loaded pistol from his trousers waist line and held it up pointing to the sky above loosely holding the pistol's handle. Grace slowly lifted her head up from behind a large rock with her hood up covering her red hair from view. Her fearful blue eyes watched closely as John placed the pistol carefully on a rock to his right, which reached his waist before stepping away from it and raising his hands again.

" My only wish to speak to you." He asked her as she slowly straightened up from behind the rock with caution and allowing her hands to fall from their place on the large rock that stood in between them.

" What is your business so far out here in the forest?" She asked him as she slowly stepped out from behind the rock.

" I was looking for you, in all truth." He whispered taking a risky step closer to her. She did not move but continued her cautious glare to him as she slowed down her heavy breathing.

" Why would you, of all people, seek out someone of my low footing in this world?" Grace asked him curiously as to why John Bellstone, the made with the cold heart and merciless soul, seek the very thing, which he uses to deem a person worthy of a beating, out?

" I wish to apologize for my actions and words at the market. They were uncalled for and ill-mannered." He said bowing slightly to show her he meant his words. Grace clenched her fists as she grew angry at him.

" Why would you of all people, known for his cold stone heart; apologize to someone like myself." She asked him stepping her right foot forward towards the man before her with a raised eyebrow. His brown eyes filled with an emotion she could not read as they landed to her feet.

" For that, I do not know the answer myself. For now at least." John told her with only the truth echoed into his words.

" It's is not me, you should be apologising too. But that poor man in the market place." Grace sneered to him with disgust in her words. For some reason the anger behind her words reached his heart, something that never happens to him.

" He had to be taught a lesson." John said applying is stone expression and looking away from her judging blue eyes.

" For what!? Asking for a penny too feed his family with?" Grace argued with him, causing his temper to boil within as he tried to keep it from exploding.

" He should be working for money! Not begging at my feet!" John yelled back in retaliation to her, but Grace stood her ground.

" Working? He has no time to do such a thing! He has children that he must take care of!" Grace growled at him.

" He has a wife!" John roared at her stepping briskly forward.

" Who I do not expect too expect to see through the spring! His wife is dying, Mr Bellstone." Grace spoke loudly at first but fading into a desperate whispered. John stopped and his boiling rage seemed to simmer down.

" You are lying. I would have heard of this if it were true." John retreated from her, not wanting to believe her words as he turned his back from her.

" Mr Bellstone, look at me and see that I am speaking only of the truth." Grace told him in a pleading manner, John slowly complied and turned to look into her blue eyes. True to her words, John saw nothing but the truth as she continued to speak to him.

" Come summer, his children will be motherless and he will have no way of feeding them." Grace spoke as she reached up to her hood and slowly pull it down to allow her hair to flow freely. John stood amazed at her hair and eyes as she stood on the edge of the cliff looking to him.

" Yesterday I visited her, do you know what I saw?" Grace began leaving a pause before continuing.

"I saw four children, the oldest being six and the youngest a few months, crying. Because they have not eating and they had to watch their mother deteriorate in front of them." She told him with watering eyes stepping back again as if to retreat from the man before her.

" You have no idea what life is truly like." Grace told him as John straighten his back.

" I know all to well how cruel life can be. I have witnessed more death and pain than you could imagine." John defended himself, it was true what he spoke. For he had seen many sights while in his service to the king.

" true you have seen death, but so have I. But you have no idea what it feels like too tell a new mother her precious new born never took a single breath of life. Or that feeling of dread you get, knowing you have too tell a family that their loved one is dying." Grace to,d him as a tear ran down her cheek from the thought of all the lives she fought and failed to save.

"You may have witnessed death, but you have no idea how it feels to fail against it. You sit in you warm luxurious manor with warm food and wealth to satisfy every one of your needs while people beg for a penny to feed many mouths." Grace yelled at him in sheer agony. John looked at her with complete surprise, no one had even dared to raise his voice to him. Never mind tell him off for his actions.

" The world is not as black and white as you believe it to be." Grace whispered stepping back and closer to the edge, John saw this and he felt his heart jump with anxiety. Silence swept over them as the wind brushed up and drifted between them. John released a sighed and let his eyes fall to the ground.

" You are right. I am sorry for my words." John spoke quietly to her, not only surprising himself. He rarely would apologise to anyone for anything, but here he was. Doing it several times over to a woman he only meet today. Grace stood straight and wiping away the last stray tear as John looked up to her blues eyes with his deep brown ones, leaving silence to claim everything around them. John's eyes wondered to her feet and once again realised how close she was too the edge, it unsettled him that if she slipped. He would not be able to help her.

" Please, come away from the edge. It is making me very unsettled." He spoke to her, Grace looked down and saw how close she had unconsciously gotten to the edge. With a slight nod she gingerly stepped forward and away from the edge of the sheer cliff face. John's seemed to relax slightly as Grace sighed.

" I guess I too should admit to my harsh words as well and beg for your pardon." Her voice spoke in a soft melody to his ears. John allow an easy smile to Grace his lips while giving a soft nod to the woman before him.

" And you have it." John smiled to her as a gust of wind stronger than the last brushed through her hair lifting it and her cloak up. Grace closed her eyes as the fresh wind hit her and sighed, allowing another pause of comfortable silence to coat upon them again.

" I had heard of rumors and tales of a fair maiden with hair like flames and a kind heart like no other. They say that she lives in the forest, also she is said to have an uncanny ability with herbs and medicine. But for a long time I believe those stories to be naught more than an old wives tales." John said smiling as he took in this scene of the angel before his eyes. A light blush of pink formed on her cheeks at his words.

" Do you believe them now, Mr Bellstone?" Grace asked him, John felt tingles rush up his spine, caused by the sound of his name leaving her rosy pink lips so gracefully.

" I can now see, they are true beyond doubt. They give little to the true alluring Grace." John smiled as he stepped forward to Grace who's blushed grew stronger from his comment, quickly looking down to the ground under her feet to avoid his approaching gaze that sent her heart thrumming and her stomach flying.

" I-I really s-should be getting home. M-My mother, she is frail and will need her medicine soon." Grace said as she quickly walked past John who grabbed her wrist as she past him.

" Wait." He said as he turned her quickly to face him, they looked into each other's eyes for moments before John released his hold on her wrist; realising their closeness to each other.

"I-I-I..." She stuttered to him looking anywhere but his brown eyes. She had never been this close to a man in her life and she did not know how to act nor feel at this point.

" Please, if you would like too... I would very much desire to see you again." John asked her pleadingly in a way he had never done, not even on the battle fields of his time in the military. Grace stayed silent unable to find her words to speak to John.

" How about this? I will be here tomorrow at high noon, on this very cliff. If you wish too meet me again, then I will be here." He told her softly, Grace simply gave him a simple nod in return before turning back around and walking towards the forest line lifting up her hood.

John watched as she walked past several trees and just as she was about to disappear behind the trees, she placed her right hand onto a thick tree truck as she gently turned to look at him. With one last smile to John she took one step and disappeared from his sight. John turned around facing his back to the forest and looked over the sea watching the waves drifting through the open water space. The salty smell mixed in with the forest smell brought warm feeling of home bubbling to the surface within him.