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Ni Na paced back and forth in her sitting room.  Waiting for a certain knock on her front door.  Lord Lee Beom Sook, the owner of a pair of stunning jade green eyes, was about to arrive.  With his mother in tow.  And this ruffled young lady who was wearing a hole in the floor with her anxiety found her heart fluttering more with each passing moment.  Why on earth had she decided to invite some strange – and wonderful – man to dinner? 

She was already feeling mightily awkward, and he hadn’t even arrived. 

Oh, but he had!

For a knock sounded suddenly.  She ceased moving and drew a deep breath.  Trying to still her racing heart.  A moment later, one of her servants led the distinguished gentleman and his mother into her sitting room.

“Lord Lee Beom Sook, Lady Lee,” the man intoned deeply before bowing and exiting.  To safer regions of the house. 

Ni Na wished that she could flee with him.  She turned her eyes on Lord Lee’s mother.  But before she could draw a breath to greet the woman, Lady Lee rushed forward.  A delighted smile brightening her beautiful countenance.

“Oh, my dear!  You must be Lord Choi’s daughter.  My!  But you are beautiful!”  She reached out and clasped Ni Na’s hands.  Completely discomfiting the young woman.

Ni Na glanced at Lord Lee Beom Sook, and he smiled charmingly at her.  But he looked completely amused by his mother’s open behavior.

The enthralled woman then turned towards her son.  “This girl is not only brilliant, Beom Sook.  She is quite lovely too.”

Said girl acquired an instant sunburn from those flaming words.  Ni Na cast her eyes at the floor and cleared her throat.

“Oh, my dear!  Of course, I just embarrassed you to no end.  I can assure you!  I meant no harm!  But you are indescribably lovely, and in my experience, young girls are rarely told when they are beautiful.  And that is such a shame.  Not that I would want you to become conceited.  But the occasional compliment can do you only good,” she added bracingly.

And teased a tiny snicker out of Ni Na.

Which completely pleased his mother all the more.  “Ah, yes!  That’s it!  Every woman should be a lady of good humor.  And joyous countenance.  I am, of course, Lady Lee.  And I just wanted to thank you for your gracious invitation.  To take pity on my lonely son.  And see that he is well-fed.  As you can clearly see,” she glanced at Beom Sook, “the boy doesn’t eat nearly enough.”

Ni Na coughed to cover the chuckle escaping her lips as she turned to watch the woman now embarrass her slender son.

“Eomma, what has gotten into you?  You promised not to embarrass me tonight,” he rebuked her softly.

“If you’re embarrassed to be thin, then you should eat something,” the woman pointed out reasonably.

To which reply, he simply shook his head.  With a rueful smile, he cast a glance at the girl who had caught his eye yesterday.  “Do you see what I must endure every day?”

Ni Na’s eyes widened perceptibly.  “Do you visit a different girl each night?  With your mother in tow?”

It was the older woman’s turn to release a delightful titter.  “Oh, my dear, I do believe you have met your match.  In wits, at least.”

He grimaced as he glanced from Ni Na to his mother.

“Hopefully, my company will not pale in comparison to all those other girls,” Ni Na murmured demurely.  But Beom Sook detected a twinkle in her eye, so he decided to play her game.

“Hmm.  Well, that depends on how much of the conversation you devote to your needlepoint,” he muttered, eyeing her carefully.

“Good gracious!” Ni Na burst out.  “And I believed you when you said that you hardly spent any time around young ladies.  Now it appears you know their character so well.”

Lady Lee was engaged in another fit of laughter.

“Do you not have an especial fondness for embroidery?” he uttered mischievously.

“None at all, my lord.  I much prefer pottery.  As I am certain I already informed you,” she retorted icily.

“Pottery?” gasped his mother.  She eyed Ni Na with new interest.  “You design pottery?”

“Mm-hmm.  I do.”

“Why, how fascinating, my dear!”

The woman’s use of an endearment baffled Ni Na.  No one spoke to her so familiarly.  Not even her own father.  Such affection was doing odd things to her heart.

Just then, they were interrupted by a servant reporting that dinner was ready.  They followed him to the dining room.  Once they were seated, Lady Lee gazed down at the amazing spread on the table.  “My!  This all looks – and smells – amazing!”

“Well,” Ni Na grinned, “it is why you’re here.  So, please, help yourselves.  Enjoy it all.”

But Lady Lee turned a quizzical eye on her son.  “Is it why we’re here?  Truly?”

He nearly growled at his mother.  She wasn’t usually such a handful.  Why was she teasing him so mercilessly?

Innocently, Ni Na glanced sharply at the older woman.  “The food is not your reason for coming?”  She puckered her sweet brow.  “What is then?”

Lord Lee glared at his eomma.  And cleared his throat.  But his mother beat him to it.

“Why, your sweet presence, of course, my dear.”

Baffled, Ni Na stared at the woman for several silent seconds.  “Forgive me, my lady.  But you hadn’t even met me until a few minutes ago.  How could my presence be the thing that drew you to my house today?”

“Oh, not me.  But, rather, my son.  He informed me that he has rarely met a woman of such sense and intelligence as you.  I believe he found your presence to be a rare treat, indeed.”

Ni Na’s gaze flew to capture Beom Sook’s.  He smiled at her and inclined his head towards her.

Flustered, she dropped her eyes to her plate as Lady Lee began to help herself to the side dishes.  But, for his part, Lord Lee continued to watch the quiet young woman seated at the table with them.  He found himself more intrigued by her with each passing minute.

What was it about this young lady that so fascinated him?

He detected her embarrassment.  And sought to rescue her.  With a dramatic change in subject.

“Eomma, tell us about your latest project,” he demanded cheerfully.

“Project?” that good woman ceased moving her chopsticks in midair.  Before she’d even taken her first bite.

He bobbed his head.  “The library.”

“Ah.”  With relish, Lady Lee turned her face towards Ni Na.  “My dear friend, Lady Han, and I are working to establish a local library for our daughters to study from.”

“I see,” Ni Na replied, eyeing that woman with no little interest.  “It must carry some copies of many ancient texts then?” she queried, picturing shelves of neatly lined-up scrolls.

“Exactly.”  The lord’s mother looked delighted that Ni Na had so easily captured her vision.

“How are you categorizing them?”

“There’s a section for poetry.  One for proverbs.  Another for battle strategies—”

“Battle strategies?” ejaculated Lord Lee Beom Sook as his eyebrows assaulted the ceiling overhead.  He stared in alarm at his mother.  “What use have a bunch of girls to study battle strategies?”

“Really, Beom Sook,” his mother responded instantly, “you act as though girls have no need to understand the finer points of our military.”

He simply blinked at her.

“Who exactly do you think raises our future soldiers?”  She glared at him.  “Their mothers, of course.” 

Then she took a big bite of kimchi, and her eyes grew round immediately.  “My dear!” she gasped as she slid her gaze towards Ni Na, “this is absolutely the most delicious kimchi I have ever eaten!  What ever did your cook do to it that mine did not?”

And Ni Na chuckled.  The conversation was now certain to turn to the food on her table.  She watched as Lord Lee Beom Sook captured some kimchi between the ends of his chopsticks and popped it into his mouth.  He grinned a moment later.

“This is really very good.”

She smiled at him.  “But, surely, you’re not as surprised as your mother.  You did, after all, already sample it yesterday.  Mixed into the rice.”

His mother’s eyebrows were the ones now threatening the ceiling.  “Yesterday?”  She glanced from one to the other.  “You ate together yesterday?”

“Remember, Eomma?  I told you that Choi Ni Na shared her lunch with me.”

“Ah, yes.”  She took a bite of bulgogi, and her eyes again revealed her pleasure.  “This food is simply amazing.  But…Miss Choi, what caused you to share your lunch with my slender son?”

“It was, of course, a concern that he would soon faint from malnourishment, my lady,” Ni Na responded cheekily.

To which comment, his mother released a delighted trill of laughter.  “Beom Sook, you must do whatever you can to retain this girl’s acquaintance!  She is so much fun!”  Her words were followed by another huge bite of food.  This time some yummy rice dish.  Which only further entranced her.

“Truthfully, my lady, he came to visit our classroom in the morning and stayed until the afternoon.  But I noticed that he did not have a lunch, so I…”  She allowed her voice to trail off.

“…saved yours for me,” he murmured as his eyes captured hers.

And she felt the bottom of her stomach drop.

“Truly?” Lady Lee breathed.  “You saved your own lunch for Beom Sook?  But…why?”

Ni Na shrugged as she prepared to take her own bite.  “I imagined that he was hungry.”

“And you thought it your responsibility to feed him?”

“It was unlikely that anyone else would,” she murmured as she chewed her own rice.

Both mother and son stared at her in no little astonishment.  But Ni Na had trained her eyes firmly on her plate.  So she was avoiding their scrutiny.

Lady Lee’s gaze then collided with her son’s.  And he quirked one dark eyebrow at her.  As though to say, “See?  I told you so, Eomma.”

She nodded her head briefly at him.  And prayed that he was able to secure this girl’s affections.  She had a feeling that Choi Ni Na would make a delightful daughter-in-law.

Lady Lee cleared her throat.  “Do you want children, Miss Choi?”

Startled, that fine young lady looked up into her eyes.  “Um.  Yes, my lady.  I do.”

“How many?”

Ni Na’s eyebrows ascended slowly.  “Umm…”

“Eomma, I hardly think that is a discussion suitable to our first dinner with Miss Choi.  Now, I feel certain that you have all kinds of gossip with which to entertain us both.  Why don’t you regale us with some amusing anecdotes?  As a way of thanking Miss Choi for providing us with this delicious meal.”  He bent his smile and his gaze on the younger woman.

Sheepishly, she peeked up at him.  His mother noted the expression in the girl’s eyes and smiled with satisfaction.  It was clear to her that this young woman was quite interested in her handsome son.  As well she should be.  The man was brilliant and titled.  As well as gorgeous and kind.  He would be a catch for any young lady.  Hopefully, this one was more cognizant of that fact than Soo Yeon had been.