Although Arthur mostly did work on the farm, sometimes he’d be sent on errands into the Henford village. On his way, he’d always stop by Beatrice’s house, and they’d complete the errands together. She had a lot of spare time on her hands until her governess would show up in the autumn, so she was going to be willing to help.
The errands, originally supposed to take no longer than an hour, would last well into the afternoon, as long as Arthur brought Beatrice. His parents never seemed to notice that he was missing, as the food he would buy was never needed until the evening, and all the other work kept them busy. This gave the pair time to be in the village centre together.
There was a plethora of things to do, from reminiscing about their days at the schoolhouse and attempting to truly leave that chapter of their lives behind, to talking, the latter of which was much simpler. Yet they would still stop at the schoolhouse regularly, even if just to look at it. The conversations they had, usually whilst cloud gazing, tended to be more serious than their usual gossip. The subject regularly shifted to their ideal futures. Beatrice, as was consistently apparent, had thought about it for a while, compared to Arthur, who would avoid giving much of an answer at all.
“I think I want to be married to a wealthy man, who could always provide for me. Maybe he could afford servants, and I wouldn’t have to worry about poisoning him. That way, I could spend my days with you, and when you’re not there, I can practise the violin,” she rambled on, smiling wistfully. She could see it now, a house in the middle of countryside, yet within walking distance of Arthur’s farm. “What about you?” “I don’t know, maybe a wife, maybe kids, hopefully not much work. Does that sound alright?” “Oh, Arthur, How ordinary of you! I can’t disagree, though. That seems to be everyone’s ambition, doesn’t it?” “Well, maybe no one wants to work?” Beatrice laughed. “I believe you’re right.”
By the time that Beatrice and Arthur were ready to return to their homes, they were both drawn, from a mixture of being out in the sun all day and constantly walking about the place. Still, their relationship fared better because of the errands — at least, that’s what they presumed. It was understood between them that if there were no errands, they’d be spending nearly no time together, because of Arthur’s work. Both him and Beatrice felt it was unfair that he had to sacrifice his entire day, week, and so forth to his work, no matter how much he enjoyed doing it. His parents often argued that it was just the way things were, not just for farmers, but everyone with a job. He was simply living in the real world, so they said.