Marina's heart skipped a beat when Phillip brought her hand up and kissed it. A blush began to form at her face as his action took her entirely by surprise.

And she hated herself for it.

Normally, a noble lord would never have done something like that. Certainly not to some filthy peasant he had just met. He would only do it to the flowery noble ladies, not someone like her.

After he released her hand, she hurriedly performed another curtsy, bowing her head as deeply as she could in the process.

 "I-I thank you for your benevolence, Milord."

And then, he spoke to her father, praising her for her beauty.

Once again, her heart skipped a beat. She had always been easily embarrassed by anyone praising her looks, even when she knew the praise was just pure formality and they didn't really mean it. Her mother always said that flattery was a woman's weakness and that she should be careful not to have her heart stolen by some silver-tongued charmer that never really cared for her other than for her looks and her body.

Phillips then continued to ask her about who she was, what her family did for a living, and many other questions about Echo Valley. She answered all of them to the best of her abilities as politely as she could. But she couldn't help but notice how he was ogling her back and forth as she spoke, and it immediately made her uncomfortable. But she couldn't just leave. Or slap him for it for that matter. Both would be criminally rude (and the latter would certainly count as assault), and she and her entire family would be jailed for it. Perhaps even executed. She knew how these noble types worked. They could not stand any peasants that stood against them. They would be publicly executed, as a reminder to the other peasants on who was in charge.

[i]Urgh, why is he ogling me so much? I'm not wearing anything revealing and my chest isn't that voluptuous.[/i]

[i]Oh great, we have a young perverted noble on our hand. I would be willing to bet it wouldn't take him a week until he took some random village girl to his fancy little keep just to plough her.[/i]

[i]...Oh no, being here is a really, really bad idea then. If he were to fancy me...[/i]

She shuddered at the thought. Want it or not, she would have to go or else her family would be made to suffer for sure. But the image of him ravenously forcing himself at her made her want to puke. She certainly would like to keep her virginity for her future husband, not for some spoiled lord that would never take a look at her again after she warmed his bed for one night.

She finished answering his latest question. And then, before he could say anything, she exclaimed, "E-excuse me, Milord. I would have to leave you now. I... need to excuse myself to the privy, you see. Too much beer," she said with a fake blush. After giving him another curtsy, she put her hand on her father's arm and dragged him away from the scene.

"Father, that was a bad idea," she told him sternly once they were out of sight, mingling back to the crowds. "He was leering at me. And you perfectly know what nobles could get away with with us peasants."