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Shocked, he stared down at her.  She meant it too.

And there was absolutely no one to stop her.  Her father was a kingdom away right now.  And she was in charge of his household.  If she wanted to fill it with twenty dirty urchins, that was her prerogative.

He heaved a deep sigh as they approached that hungry group of kids.  Suddenly, they were swamped by them as the children saw the rice cakes on the platters which he was carrying.  Grubby hands reached out to grab them.  Before shoving them into mouths wide with greed.  In just a few moments, they had devoured the entire stack.

Ni Na beamed down at them all.  “I shall return with strawberries next.”

“Miss?” one of the girls spoke up.  “Thank you!” she exclaimed with tears shining in her eyes.

“Yes!” exclaimed the girl who had stolen her silver.  “Thank you so much for feeding us today.”  She bowed to her.

“You are most welcome, darlings,” Ni Na responded to them both as her eyes moved from one face to the other.  “I’ll be back soon,” she promised before she turned back towards the market.

She was off to find strawberries and tangerines.  But as she walked back towards the rice cake stall, Ni Na suddenly jumped as the remembrance of strawberries jiggled her memory.  “Oh, dear!  Ae Ri!  I totally abandoned her to chase that girl!  She must be searching everywhere for me.”  She began to look around for her friend.

“Ni Na,” Beom Sook broke into her thoughts.  “You cannot move those children in with you.”

She bent her gaze upon him for a moment as she frowned up at him.  “Why not?”

“You are a single woman.  Living alone.  With just your servants.  You can’t take responsibility for all those kids.  You’d become a…peculiarity.”

“I can assure you, my lord,” she intoned deeply, “I am already a peculiarity.”

“What do you mean?” he asked as he furrowed his brow in confusion at her.

“I am nearly eighteen years old.  I have no husband.  Nor am I promised to anyone.  The vast majority of my friends married sometime in the last three years.  Even Ae Ri is going to marry Lord Han.  I am the only one left.”

“There are plenty of single girls in your class, aren’t there?”

She bobbed her head.  “But most of those girls are under sixteen.  All the others – many of them included – are already promised.”  Her eyes slid away from him.  This conversation was making her uneasy.

“Why haven’t you been promised to someone?” he murmured quietly.

She began to move forward again as she heaved a deep sigh.  “My father has given little thought to me.  All of my life.  When my mother died, the servants continued raising me.  But none of them is in a position to marry me off.”  For which she was supremely grateful.  “It is all right.  I am quite happy with my life the way it is,” she affirmed in a resolute tone.

“Are you?” he queried, disturbing her composure.  “I thought that you were lonely.”

“I am,” she admitted.  “But I also enjoy my freedom.  I can come and go as I please.  I can study or not study.  I can play with my clay and paints to my heart’s content.  And there’s no one to naysay me.  And…I can adopt a large group of children and take them home with me,” she added with relish as she strode off towards the rice cake stall.

And Lord Lee Beom Sook heaved a deep sigh of exasperation.  He had the feeling that if he didn’t intervene, her father’s home was going to be turned into an orphanage tonight.

As Ni Na returned the platters to the creator of the rice cakes, Ae Ri suddenly gushed into her ear, “Oh, Ni Na!  Here you are!  I was beginning to get worried.  You ran after that girl, and then I couldn’t find you.”

Ni Na turned towards her best friend.  “Oh, Ae Ri!  I am so sorry!  I got distracted taking care of the kids, and I forgot about you for a few minutes.”

Ae Ri frowned.  “What kids?”

“The girl who stole my silver.  And her friends.”  She glanced back the way she had come, but the children were out of sight around the corner.

“You’re taking care of the thief?” Ae Ri breathed incredulously.  “And her friends?”

Ni Na frowned and bobbed her head.  “Those poor children are orphans and hadn’t eaten in two days!”  Suddenly, her face broke forth into a wide grin.  “And I’m going to take care of them!  I’m going to establish an orphanage for them to live in.  And I’m going to teach them how to read and write so they can all find good-paying jobs.”

Her friend just gaped at her.  Ae Ri had always known how wide Ni Na’s heart was.  The girl had gotten herself into several scrapes when they were younger.  Always adopting wild animal babies that had been abandoned by their parents. 

“But, Ni Na, you’re not talking about a warren of baby bunnies.  These are children you’re speaking of.  They require a great deal of care.  Not to mention loads of food and clean clothes.  And they’ll outgrow them faster than you could believe.  Especially the boys.”

Ni Na nodded.  “I know it.  But…I can do it.  I must do it.  They have no one, Ae Ri.  And I have so much.  Besides, don’t you think we have something in common?”

Her friend wrinkled her brow.  “What do you mean?”

“I have no one either,” Ni Na muttered.

And Beom Sook overheard her comment and glanced at her in alarm.

“That’s not true!” her friend commented bracingly.  “You have me.  And Auntie Dan O.  And…”

“And you shall be married before we know it and raising a whole passel of babies,” Ni Na smiled at her as she slung her arm around her friend’s shoulders.  “Which is exactly as it should be.  Maybe, Ae Ri, Appa never promised me to a man because I’m called to a different kind of life.”

Perplexed, her friend gazed up at her.  “What are you talking about?”

“Maybe I’m not supposed to marry,” Ni Na murmured. 

Alarming Lee Beom Sook to no end.  In their haste to ascend, his eyebrows nearly chopped off the branch of a tree hovering overhead.

“Perhaps I’m supposed to open an orphanage and spend my days like Kim Jung Sook.  Teaching others.”

“But Kim Jung Sook isn’t just our teacher.  She’s a wife.  And soon she’ll be a mother too.”

Inhaling deeply, Ni Na nodded.  “I know it.  But I don’t have to live my life like her exactly.”

“But, Ni Na, you’ve always wanted a bunch of kids.  If you don’t marry, then you’ll never have any.”

Beom Sook watched as a great wave of sorrow flooded her countenance suddenly.  “It’s true.  But perhaps I need to put aside my desires to take care of someone else.  Maybe I’ve always wanted children because I was destined to take care of these kids.”

Ae Ri stared at her in bewilderment.

And Lord Lee Beom Sook felt that it was up to him to intervene.  “Ni Na.  Don’t be rash.  You’re talking about taking on a massive responsibility that will eat up the next ten years of your life if you give yourself to it.”

Her eyes met his, and she grimaced.  “What else do I have in my life, my lord?  What would stop me from helping these children?  And what will fill my life if I don’t?  Selfish hours spent painting and sculpting?  Truly, nothing else.  And I can still pursue what I love while I care for these kids.  In fact, I can use those giftings to care for them.”

He marveled at her.  But he was also disturbed.  He had been planning, at some point, to ask her to marry him.  Hadn’t he?

“Are you truly not interested in marriage?” he queried soberly.

She gazed at him earnestly.  “Honestly?”

He bobbed his head.

“My greatest dream was always to marry as my mother did.  Someone who adored me.  And whom I adored.  But,” her eyes slid away from his, “no such man has ever crossed my path.  Nor do I believe he ever shall.”

“What?” he gasped.  “Why not?”

She sniffed.  “Because I already adore a man.”  She paused for a moment.  “But as you know, he does not return my affection.  So all that is left to me is a marriage of unequal parts.  And I am not sure that I could bear that.”

“Unequal parts?” he quizzed her.  “What do you mean?”

She brushed his question aside.  “It’s nothing.”  She turned towards the strawberry stall.  “Let’s go find the children some fruit.”

But he reached out and grasped her arm lightly, so she turned back towards him.  “And if you could have a marriage of equal parts – if a gentleman who respected you – and whom you respected – proposed to you, would you accept him?”

For just a moment, another wave of sorrow swept across her face.  “I do not know,” she whispered.  “All I know today is that I cannot allow those children to walk back into that forest.  I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.”

Then she walked away from him to gather some strawberries for a certain adorable, little girl.  And all her friends.