Squire Hayseed

by S E Zbasnik

  She had to get out of there. Get away from her before she did something stupid. Like try and throw a punch…only to have Larissa hurl her to the ground and probably break a bone. Be fun to try and explain that one to Gavin. Turning away, Hayley nearly walked straight into Marco. The massive wall of boy stood stock still, his eyes wide while he fiddled with his fingers.

  He was unstoppable in the arena. Could probably carry five knight’s worth of stuff. Easily the best squire to choose. But he wasn’t the first picked. Nor was it Miss Priss, knows everything there is to know about the world. No, it was Hayley. The scrawny, scraggly, waste of bone and flesh.

  “Know what I think,” Hayley popped her lips, slowly wetting them while Larissa finally glanced over. With a glint in her eyes, Hayley smiled. “You’re jealous because the best knight, the one people run to watch, the knight everyone brags about being so amazing… didn’t pick you.”

  With that lingering burn set to burst, Hayley spun on her heel and stomped out of the library. No doubt Larissa was snarling into her hands, probably foaming mad and wanting to rush to bash in Hayley’s skull but she didn’t care. Her head raised up high, but doubts swam through her gut like fat cod.

  So she didn’t belong. Big deal. Hayley already knew she shouldn’t be here. Her hand patted against her pocket, the bulge of the box secreted below some kerchiefs. What’d it matter if Larissa was the only one bleating the obvious? Not like Gavin would listen to her. Probably not listen to her.

  But if Frederick did, and then it got back to her knight…?

  Swallowing hard, Hayley stomped past the other handful of squires, merchants, and even knights all frolicking through the estate. The knights, in particular, took up residence in a mead room, each doing their best to drain the cask. Hayley barely glanced in, watching what looked like Frederick and Erin trying to race each other to a hangover. She needed to get back to her room. Maybe play the helpful nurse to her wounded knight. Or offer to check on Gringolet.

  A shudder crawled up her spine at the thought. If Gavin was between her and the horse, she could convince herself it was okay. She hated it, her skin prickling with every snort from those massive nostrils, but she could survive. Alone in a dark barn, just the creak of wood and stomp of hooves…

  Maybe he’d ask her to polish something instead. She could do that.

  Counting down the doors, Hayley paused before the one she’d dropped all of his fancy armor off in. It had a boar’s head carved into the wood, either denoting that the person inside was important or it was for the swine merchant. Either way, she moved to open the latch when a noise broke from inside.

  It wasn’t her knight whispering to himself. Nor Gavin giving a loud command to another inside. Not even a handful of other knights shouting out cries of triumph while dice rattled in a cup. No, it was the absolute last sound Hayley expected to hear from her knight’s room: a girlish giggle.

  Her hand froze upon the large iron handle and she tried to inch the side of her head closer to the wood. Another giggle broke from inside the room, and then a great sigh. That one sounded masculine and happy. Satisfied. What was going on?

  Taking a quick glance up and down the deserted hall, Hayley dropped to a knee. Places like this had huge keyholes, making it hard for unwanteds to secret away a key somewhere on their body. Holding her breath, Hayley drew her chest tight to the door and inched her eye closer. Her vision expanded through two sheets of dingy iron to the scene beyond.

  There was the bed. It’d been practically stripped when they first wandered in. Her knight asked Hayley to lay out a blanket. She had to twist her head to the right to trail up the bunched blanket she worked hard to place. Someone was clearly buckling the bed into a deep hole from laying upon it and…

  Holy hell.

  The shallow breath in her body caught into a gurgle as she eyed up the very bare flesh on display. By the firelight, the gentle brown radiated. The flames licked up his exposed legs and chest, the owner laying back on the bed while fully nude. There were a lot of shapes to that naked body, twists and turns that made Hayley squirm in place. She should look away, she really shouldn’t be watching as Gavin drew up on his elbows and smiled serenely.

  Her traitorous eyes flickered from his face to his chest, and — for the briefest of windows — landed in the loin area. It was quicker than a beat of a humming bird’s wing, Hayley mentally shrieking with each glimpse, but she looked. She didn’t entirely understand what she saw, only that she knew it was naughty, and curved more than graffiti convinced her it should be.

  Hayley shifted her stance again, her guts growing squishy, and she caught sight of a different kind of flesh. This was a creamy peach, softer than the hair covered one laid out on the bed. Only the backside was visible, scooped like an upside-down heart, Hayley watching the cheeks lift one after the other as the owner slipped closer to the bed.

  Blonde hair spilled down to the middle of the naked back, the woman drawing a knee up onto the bed while Gavin sat up higher. His hand reached for the curl of her barely visible cheek. “My you are beautiful,” he sighed deeply from his heart and tugged her closer.

  When their lips touched in a lavish kiss, Hayley’s entire face burned red. The beautiful woman seemed to melt into Gavin’s arms, the arch of her back falling so she molded tighter to his chest. Her flesh eclipsed his from view, but it didn’t stop the strange throbbing inside all of Hayley’s body. She really really should not be looking. What if he found her? What if he heard? This was one of those super private things, right?

  Why couldn’t she rip her eyes away?

  Her knight’s palm, the one that’d grab hers to fix up her grip to swords, tenderly smoothed down the beautiful woman’s shoulder and cupped right around her breast. Holy shit. Hayley scrunched her face up, trying to keep from crying in confused surprise while the woman inside moaned. Was that good? Was that how it was supposed to go?

  Drawing her hand from the door, Hayley scooped her palm across her jagged clavicle. She drifted near the nub of her breast, eye peeled upon the actions heating up inside. The cold iron burned into the landscape surrounding her peeping eye, but her body was boiling. She thumbed against the prodding nipple a moment, blinking in shock at a wave that swelled through her skin.

  “Finding anything interesting, squire?”

  Shit!

  Hayley flung herself back from the door, crab-walking as quickly as possible. Her entire body was red with an unexplainable flush which quickly turned into one of embarrassment. She craned her head up to find Ser Frederick standing with his arms crossed. He had a smile on his cheeks but a frown in his eyes.

  “I…I was…” Hayley’s brain was stripped raw. She sure as shit couldn’t say what she was doing. Oh god, what if he dragged her inside? What if he told Gavin and…?

  Frederick tipped his head towards the door. “Isn’t that your room?”

  Numbly, she nodded her head.

  His handsome face crinkled in confusion as he eyed it up. No doubt he was wondering what she was doing spying upon the room she was supposed to be sleeping in. Frederick inched closer, his fist raised to knock. No! Hayley skittered to her feet, about to grab onto his arm, to beg him to not tattle, when a loud moan escaped from inside the door.

  The traitorous fist hung an inch from the wood, giving no sound. Frederick’s head dipped down and a smile spread across his lips. He seemed to listen a bit longer, Hayley squirming as she too bathed in the gasps of writhing pleasure.

  “So that’s it,” Frederick said with a chuckle, his voice whispering.

  “I only, I wanted to…I was…” Hayley stammered, her feet backing her up to the far wall.

  His sparkling eyes drifted once more to the closed door before landing back on her, “Yeah, I get what you were doing.”

  Hayley yelped, shame threatening to burn her to cinders when Frederick winked.

  “I was young once too. Don’t worry.” He drew his fingers over his lips and pretended to button them tight. “I’ll
keep that to myself. Though you might want to be less obvious next time.”

  Next time? Her body felt as if it was trying to puke up her muscles. She didn’t want anything to do with any of that ever again. Shaking her head madly, Hayley shifted back and forth on her toes. She mouthed her thanks, terrified of making any sound that Gavin might hear.

  “Forget about it,” he said with an assurance, his smile transferring to Hayley. She took in a slow breath, trying to steady the erratic heartbeat. Frederick snorted again, his eyes darting one last time to the room of sin, “He always manages to catch himself a fine treat for the evening.”

  He did? Hayley narrowed her eyes and twisted towards the door. Had there been others at the estate? Others while she slept in her pantry? Or did he…did he do it elsewhere? At the grounds outside the castle? Unnatural anger surged through her, Hayley mentally cataloging every woman and girl that cast a longing look towards her knight.

  “Come on.” Frederick tipped his head down the long hallway. “Best to let them…finish, otherwise you’ll just have a cranky boss on your hands. And no one wants that.”

  While he trailed back towards the rest of the party in the manor, Hayley took a single stare back at the closed door. Her veins percolated in a heady cocktail of emotions, some of which she could barely pin down, but the jealousy confused her most of all.

  “Squire!” Frederick shouted and, terrified that her knight and his lady heard, Hayley dashed down the hallway towards him.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Her arms bulged with a mass of sticks, one jabbing so hard into her forearm Hayley feared she’d find it went clean through. A great honking erupted below her and she glared at Leroy — the lead goose. “Not in the mood,” she muttered, stomping towards the pile of wood inside the barn and dropping the future kindling.

  “God take me,” Hayley groaned, both her arms collapsing to the side. She bounced her hands on her thighs to make certain they still worked. For the past day and a half, this was her job — walk out to the woods, pick up sticks, bring them back, make a massive pile for snakes to live in. Or whatever it was for.

  Somewhere out in the mass of trees was her knight pruning and chopping without a seeming care in the world. Others who worked at the estate were there as well, picking cherries off the verdant trees and giggling at the man removing the dead wood from the living. They particularly enjoyed how in the heat he’d stripped off his usual long-sleeved shirts to a thin tunic and a pair of hose that…

  Hayley scrunched her cheeks up into her eyes with her fingers. She’d been glad to have the other knights and squires around while they trekked over the winding roads back to the estate. They helped to cover up the awkwardness of a squire trying to pretend she didn’t peep on her knight as naked as the day he was born. She never caught sight of the mystery blonde again either, Gavin insisting they head out early before Lady Anne got any more ideas.

  Thankfully, Frederick seemed willing to keep her secret, though he’d on occasion turn to her and waggle his eyebrows. Hayley would flush at the attention and reminder, but when Larissa scowled in response she started to laugh a lot just to dig deeper into the wound. By the time they waved the other knights and squires away to return to the estate, it seemed as if they hadn’t even left. Aside from her being expected to stumble through a book of prayers, her day to day life didn’t change an inch.

  “Gah!” Hayley leapt in the air, a painful pinch reverberating off her asscheek. She spun just in time to watch the grey goose waddle off, its head twisted away as if to pretend it hadn’t given her a bite. Punching a fist into her palm, Hayley eyed up the goose — her mind dreaming of a roast dinner. Before she could make good on such bloodlust, the loud clap of ironed hooves snapped her away.

  She didn’t shiver, not externally at least, but her eyes swung from the broad ass of the tawny horse to the boy holding the reins and walking beside. Finn cooed to the animal entrusted to him, directing it towards the grazing pastures. He must have felt her attention as his head twisted back and he winked. Hayley gritted her teeth and crossed her arms. She hadn’t officially forgiven him for kidnapping her and making her sit on a horse. Though, he wouldn’t stop acting as if she was over it all. He even suggested they take a trip out again to teach her how to fire arrows off the back of one of those monsters.

  Right, and she’d be declared a Duchess with all the jewels in the kingdom.

  Finn shrugged, his face drifting lopsided and a great grin rising. Hayley realized her hand was lifting of its own accord, about to give a friendly wave, when the boy suddenly whipped his head away. He stared in the direction of the orchard where someone must have called to him.

  Frowning at his diverted attention, Hayley watched as Finn emphatically waved his hand in the air. It wasn’t a haphazard greeting, there seemed to be a pattern to the methodical movements of his fingers and palm. Curious, and having a guess as to why, she eased around the backend of the horse to spy Ania returning the signal. A wooden basket teeming with red and yellow cherries sat at her feet. She needed both of her hands empty for whatever she was sending to Finn.

  Before Hayley could decipher anything, Finn tugged on the horse’s bridle and revealed the squire to Ania. Her sparkling eyes shifted from the stableboy to the girl about to be besieged by angry geese. Slapping her hand out and kicking behind, Hayley dashed from the next assault. With nowhere safe to head, it was towards Ania she sprinted.

  The girl laughed at that, her voice shouting loud enough to rattle the eaves, “They are most foul today.”

  “They’re foul every day,” Hayley sputtered to herself, coming to a stop beside a puddle filled with the remnants of the last rain.

  Ania chuckled, a hand wrapped around her midsection. “Good one.”

  “Good what?” Hayley flinched, fingers patting along the back of her legs to check for goose bites.

  “Your…the pun, being foul of…” Ania stuttered a moment before she sighed. “Never mind.”

  The bites ceased hurting but Hayley couldn’t stop rubbing the wounds, her hands trying to make up for the burgeoning tension. Why did no one else notice the secret signals between servant and stableboy? Were they not afraid of being plundered under their noses?

  “You look busy,” Hayley began the uncertain dance, her nose crinkling at the smell of horse shit lingering from the grass.

  Ania shrugged, her arms filling with the mass of cherries. There were jams, and jellies, and compotes, and pies to make. All manner of fresh food to keep the house servant buried up to her eyeballs in work. But she still found time to plot and scheme with Finn.

  What if they weren’t planning a heist? Hayley swung her head to the older girl who smiled so pretty it should explode bluebirds. What if they were doing that stuff behind closed doors too? Her gut boiled red hot at the thought, but she had no idea why. So what if everyone else was that…thing? She’d be gone soon anyway.

  Turning in place, Ania’s diamond-sharp eyes landed right upon Hayley’s face. Yup, real pretty, no doubt about that. “This is nothing. Wait until you see true harvest time. Even your knight takes up the plow to assist.” She laughed to herself at the thought but then her eyes turned misty and wistful, “Unless he has some great adventure to attend to.”

  Or maybe she was into Gavin.

  The sound of Frederick laughing at how easily her knight charmed women into his bed thudded hard against Hayley’s ear. Were Ania and Gavin…?

  “Can I ask you something?” Hayley spat out fast, her eyes closed tight. She didn’t open them to see if Ania acquiesced, just dug in deeper without thought. Her tongue burned, the unspoken words sparking off her like acid. If she asked it, there was no coming back. No pretending she didn’t see it, no acting as if she didn’t wonder.

  Taking a deep breath Hayley spat out fast, “Why are you and Finn always signaling each other?”

  “Oh,” Ania smiled, her head tipped down as a blush burned on her cheeks, “you noticed?”

  “Hard not to,
” Hayley spat out. At the sound of her voice, Ania focused on her mouth and Hayley added, “I mean, you’re always with your hands and stuff.”

  Her pretty little nose crinkled, Ania bobbing her head before she said, “Most cease noticing.” She sounded…not sad, but contemplative as if she always wore an invisible yoke. Scooping the basket onto her hip, Ania patted at her ear, “I am deaf.”

  “Deaf?” Hayley chortled to herself. Then she shouted louder, “How can you be deaf? We’re talking, you can talk. Deaf people can’t talk.”

  The nose crinkled deeper, Ania’s smile flattening for perhaps the first time since Hayley met her. “I read lips. Though I sometimes miss details, I can discern the idea.”

  “Like,” Hayley’s eyes opened wide at the thought, her shoulder shifting her body right before Ania. Deaf? She’d never even considered it. The girl moved without a care, seemed certain in her tasks. “What am I saying now?” Hayley’s lips emphasized her words dramatically and Ania sighed.

  “That you are a right pillock.”

  That caused Hayley to burst out laughing. It was true.

  “My hearing is not fully gone. I can understand some sounds, deep ones mostly. Or close while in a pitch quiet room. But from a distance with…” she raised her hand to encircle the farm, “animals bleating, it is much harder.”

  “So that’s why you and Finn…?”

  “We worked out a system, minor messages usually to send greetings or warnings if the Lady is in a tiff.” Ania’s usually bright and focused eyes were darting around the sky. Her fingers pulsed so tight into the basket it looked like the cherries were about to pop free.

  Deaf. Not about to steal away the Duchess’ family jewels. Huh. “Can,” Hayley began, her head drifting towards the ground. Feeling Ania’s burning eyes on her, she lifted her chin higher to look directly at her. “Can you teach me your hand messages?”

  “You wish to learn?” Ania sounded flabbergasted, as if Hayley asked to borrow her underclothes.

  “It’d be useful. I mean, you’re supposed to be taking care of things when we’re not home. And if I want to give a jolly hi to you.” Hayley waved her hand which caused Ania to laugh.