by S E Zbasnik
Is that what it was? She tried to sit up higher in her chair for a closer look but any more staring just caused her to shudder. If that’s what mermaids looked like, she was never going to the high seas. Never going back, anyway.
Hayley frowned deep at the thought, wanting to run from both the memory and fact. This was a happy time, a crazy feast with mermaids and undead geese. She turned in her chair to stare up at Lady Bernadine who was practically glowing under her wig. The rouge circles on her cheeks radiated against the pale plaster of the powder and she smiled wide.
“Ladies, gentlemen, I give you for our final entree…” Her withered hand drifted toward the door.
Two men entered, both of them wearing little more than small dangling knickers knotted on thin hips with skin so oiled they could slip through the chimney. Entrenched upon their shoulders was a great roasted pig. Poles were jammed into the flesh of the pig’s side, which was how it was being carted around. Instead of an apple in its snout, there was a small squash with a face carved into it.
The scent of the crisped up pork skin caused Hayley’s stomach to leap up and try to wrench her towards it. She wanted to rip off the crinkly skin, jam the tender and succulent meat into her mouth, and chew away. But it, being the focal point of the meal, was placed right beside Lady Bernadine. The old woman waved her hand over the heavenly pig, proud as a peacock for the spread.
Driven past the polite clapping, the guests erupted together in praise of the meal. Swept up in it, and her stomach still taking the lead, Hayley joined in. She was tempted to give a whistle of encouragement, but she felt Gavin staring long and hard at her. Right. Best behavior, and then maybe she could get some of all of that.
A platter made of pure gold was placed into Lady Bernadine’s hands along with a knife. She tipped the plate under the pig’s belly and moved to jab into it. The knife’s tip pierced deep into the crackling skin, murmurs of excitement rising, when a horrific scream echoed from above them all. Lady Bernadine’s hands fell forward, both the platter and knife skittering to the ground.
Gavin leapt to his feet, dashing towards the staircase. Hayley was about to follow, but her knight was bowled over by Countess Dorean. Half of her hair was dangling down her shoulders, her dress skewed, and the paint on her face smeared as if someone swiped their hand down it. Her wild eyes cut through the festivities when she shrieked again, the cry primal.
“What is the matter?” Gavin asked, but the countess wouldn’t look at him. She wouldn’t look at anyone but Bernadine.
The Duchess, having regained her wits from the spilled platter, stood up. “Dorean?”
“It’s gone,” the Countess cried, her hands whipping through the air. Heads swung about in confusion, whispers breaking out. “My ruby necklace has been stolen!”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The entire feast was thrown into chaos as every single guest was sent to paw through the estate. Lady Dorean couldn’t cease shrieking in wrath at any who’d dare to touch her most precious jewels. When she wasn’t suddenly overcome with such anger, she’d nearly faint into the good knight’s strong arms. Gavin took charge, getting the Duchess and Countess comfortable behind a secure door before he doled out orders.
While the servants prodded through the various guests' belongings, Gavin doing his best to supervise, the rest were sent to scour the grounds. The Duchess kept insisting that perhaps the dear lady merely misplaced or dropped it. Of course, Dorean wouldn’t hear of it, insisting that some miscreant stole away her jewel.
To the gussied up stableboy, Gavin whispered, “Check near her horse to make certain it wasn’t dropped.” Finn nodded slowly, his eyes wide, when the knight turned to Hayley. “Assist him.”
So that was how she wound up holding high a candle while both of them dug through the littered straw. The boy beside her hadn’t said much, though he did take off his ludicrous jacket at least. It jangled so much both Hayley and the horses were growing anxious.
Her palms itched from digging through the straw, wax tipping this way and that whenever she’d go for a scratch. Hayley kept to the aisle of the stable while Finn braved wandering between massive hooves that’d splatter his brains to the ground. Least that was the only way she pictured it going.
“Hayseed,” Finn called, bringing a frown to her face. “Get over here.”
“Why?” she staggered off her knees and eased open the wooden door. A great black-brown hide flickered from beside Finn, but the boy seemed to have pushed the horse out of the way. Was it for her benefit or to search?
“I need the light,” Finn insisted, plucking the candle out of her fingers rather than wait for her to get near. He bent to his knees and wafted the flame closer to the straw than seemed wise.
Hayley waited a breath before she asked, “Did you find it?”
“Nah,” Finn rose from his haunches, a foot kicking into the straw to hide away whatever he thought might be this missing jewel, “just horse shit.”
“This is all horse shit,” Hayley muttered. There was perfectly wonderful food cooling on the tables while they all slinked around in the dark trying to find some ruby necklace stuck inside of a box.
Finn rubbed against the horse’s flank, patting it down in a gentle thanks before he handed the candle back to the squire. “We’re in a stable, what else did you expect?” he said with a laughing shrug.
“You know what I mean. No one can see their nose in this darkness. It’d be easier to wait until morning to search,” she sneered, her stomach craving the feast that’d been cruelly snatched away. “Damn thing probably fell into her skirts or some shit.”
Finn chuckled to himself, his body pausing from rushing out of the stall. “Know what I bet. Lady Count there pilfered off her jewels years ago but wanted to make some extra coin. So she hatches a scheme to lose it at a fancy Duchess’ feast, knowing full well she can pin the blame on some help wandering around the grounds.”
“That’s…” Hayley wanted to say it was horrible, but her brain wouldn’t let her. “Unbelievable.” At that Finn turned to her, drifting slightly closer over the straw. “I mean,” Hayley continued, “Countess Dorean didn’t seem to have the brains of a wading bird.”
A great laugh broke from the boy whose cheeks were even redder by the intimate candlelight. “Don’t matter,” he sighed, “it’s a proper pastime for ‘em. Blaming servants for shit that ain’t their doing. Getting ‘em dragged off or put in chains just to save face. I think they’re born knowing how to pass the blame off.”
They sounded horrible. These were supposed to be the great leaders of the kingdom? Those born into wealth, therefore considered by god to be more deserving of power and influence? Yet they were less noble than a random pickpocket on the street. For all the purses Hayley cut, when she was caught she never once jabbed a hand at some random passerby and screamed that they did it. She would throw the coins at the guards and hightail it out as fast as she could. Just ‘cause she didn’t believe in screwing people over didn’t mean she’d willingly leap into the noose either.
“Hey Hayseed,” Finn whispered, his face so close she could feel the temperature of his breath. It was warmer than a summer’s breeze. Hayley turned to try and glare at whatever he wanted, but the smug laugh on his face was gone. It was replaced by a…a different look altogether. The cheeks were raised like in a smile, but the lips slack. His eyes burned like he wanted to do something incredibly naughty, but his hands lay limp at his side as if they were useless.
“What?” Hayley sputtered, her breath lodging in her chest.
Finn took one exaggerated step closer to her and Hayley didn’t back away. She could leap over the stall door, but she remained rooted in place, her eyes burning into his hungry ones. “You’re in a stable,” he whispered.
“No shit,” Hayley rolled her eyes high. On the swing down she watched dumbstruck as Finn pursed his lips together, the even wider mouth coming straight for hers. She’d been thrown last time, both wanting to throttle him for trying a
nd herself for…for not leaping forward. For getting distracted by the Countess.
Closing her eyes softly so only the barest light flickered under her eyelids, Hayley leaned forward.
“Squire!”
The voice boomed through the stable, rattling the iron horseshoes nailed above the doors. Hayley’s eyes shot open wide, her guilty body trying to tip her ass over the half door. Finn stood bolt upright, his legs skittering him towards the back of the stable when Gavin burst in.
How could he know? Did he see them through a window? Hayley leapt over the barely closed door and landed beside her knight. “Ser,” she reported, her cheeks flushed, “I was searching through the straw for…”
Blazing amber eyes skipped right past the kissing boy in the back of the horse stall to burn an endless rage into her. “The necklace.”
The growl lifted up every hair on Hayley’s arms, but she had to do a mental cartwheel to reorient herself. She expected to be shouted at for being caught with Finn. They had been doing what they were supposed to do until they weren’t…
“We’re looking for it,” Hayley let her eyes drift back to Finn, who was trying to vanish into the shadows. Way to leave her out to dry.
She expected that to be enough when Gavin’s hand lashed through the air and clamped down onto her upper arm. The fingers dug in tight, his nails piercing through the livery to leave welts on her skin. Terrified, her eyes darted to his hand, but he wouldn’t pull it away. Hayley began to whimper, when Gavin snarled, “Where is the necklace?”
“I don’t know,” she cried, stupid tears rising in her eyes. What did he want?
Gavin stood up tall, that burning hellfire of his eyes twisting away. A gasp of mercy erupted up Hayley’s throat, but his grip remained steadfast. Without a care to the girl he snared, Gavin dragged Hayley out of the stables and into the cold night air. Her feet paddled fast, doing her best to keep up. Where was he taking her? To the main house? Was…was she going to be thrown to the Countess’ feet? Blamed for losing this gem box because she was the last to carry in her things?
At the juncture beside the well, Gavin turned not to the left and the cold fires of the manor, but the right. Hayley gave up trying to wrench her arm free, her feet slipping over the dirt as they staggered up the two steps to their little home. The door was wide open, almost as if someone in a fit of anger ran out of it without a thought.
A massive stone lodged deep inside Hayley’s gut and she kept tugging on the grip. Her body rang a warning her brain didn’t understand. What did he want? She didn’t know where the damn thing was. “Ser,” her voice quivered just as they walked through the front door, “what do you…?”
Her tears froze, her jaw dropping open as Gavin jerked her head right to the bounty lay stretched over a table. Every little trinket Hayley nicked was laid out as if someone was cataloging it, along with the wobbly brick she hid them behind.
Shit.
Gavin threw her arm away, his body rippling in rage as he stomped behind her handful of treasures. Silence walloped the room, only the piercing snort of air bursting from his nostrils filling the void. He was a bull about to gore Hayley to bits. She could do nothing but stare at the little knife, the box, the ivory statue, the golden shoehorn. Each so easy to miss, so easy to slip into a pocket. So easy for no one to care about.
A hand slammed to the table, rocking the treasures and causing Hayley to leap into the air. “Where is it?!” Gavin shouted.
“I didn’t take it!” Hayley screamed back, the tears building fast.
“You took these…” He waved a hand over her future nest egg, then slammed it on the other side of her ill-gotten gains.
Hayley’s teeth chattered inside her jaw, her fingers digging tighter and tighter into her livery. She’d been excited to wear the damn thing, having gotten all the stains out just for tonight. Now, she wrenched the terrified snot off her nose and swiped it over the top serpent. There was no way she could lie her way out of this. No way to…
“No one even cared!” Hayley cried. “No one noticed, no one…no one even needed them.”
Gavin lifted away from the table and raised his arms. Hayley flinched, fearing his fists would come for her, but he crossed them instead. “At least you give me the dignity of the truth now. They warned me,” Gavin twisted his head, the breath bounding off each word as if he too wanted to cry…or break every bone in her body. “Told me of your past.”
Despite being there in person for it Hayley still winced at the reminder, folding deeper into herself.
“I trusted you, I foolishly let myself believe that you…you could change if given enough reason,” his thunder flattened to a soft sigh at the end, as if he could scarcely believe how wrong he was about her. “I wanted you to be better.”
“I’m not!” Hayley shrieked, saltwater smothering her eyes as she whipped her hand through the air. “I’m a pickpocket! A street rat! You scooped me out of the gutter and no…no crest on my clothing, or-or alphabet reciting, or sword training will fix that!”
“Why? Why steal? You had everything you could possibly need here.”
Hayley snorted at that. Everything came with strings attached. He was the one to tell her and now he acted as if she should have just smiled with a jolly pat on her head for the kindly Duchess not letting her starve on the doorstep. Gavin raised up higher, his shoulders squaring him into place for Hayley’s indignity. He looked about to say something, probably scream her stupid, but she beat him to it.
“They have everything! Every cursed thing they could ask for. That stuff,” her voice gurgled with the mass of anger and tears in her gut, “all that I stole, they didn’t even notice. Didn’t care. It was like a-a god damn fly to them for all they care. So what if I stole it? That would…would feed someone like me for a year. And they don’t even care!”
Her rambling words echoed through the small house, pinging off of pots she washed and hung up, through the small bookcase where Hayley would run her fingers over the covers to find the words. It wasn’t her home. It was never her home. People like her didn’t have homes, they had stones. Stones for beds, stones for food, stones for graves.
Gavin closed his eyes, his voice rumbling deep in his chest, “Where is the necklace?”
“How should I know?” Hayley sputtered. “You think I’m daft enough to steal something like that?”
“The proof is here.” He again waved towards the few niceties she lifted.
Her shoulders shuddered as she buried her face behind her palms. It wasn’t that he caught her, it was that he thought she was so stupid about it. Even if she knew about this supposed jewel, Hayley wouldn’t have gone near it. Things like that were dangerous. Things like that brought about the headman’s axe.
“I didn’t take it,” Hayley spat, her finger jabbing to each of the trinkets. “I took them, and that’s it.”
A slow breath rattled through Gavin’s lungs before his eyes opened and he asked, “How can I believe that?”
He said it not as if he was broken from her betrayal. Not as if he wanted her to find some way to fix what she broke. It was a statement as immutable as the word of god. There was no way he could ever believe her. There was no way he could ever trust her.
There was nothing for her.
Hayley scattered back from the table of damnation. She feared he’d leap forward to grab her up again, but Gavin looked wiped, his body teetering at the mess before him. Her hand patted to the wall, trying to assure herself she was close to the door. Easing the heel of her foot to the opening, she paused and raised her head.
“Nothing hurts them,” Hayley gasped. Gavin’s head lifted to stare at her. “People like them, gussied up in their golden finery, eating off silver plates, bathing in pewter tubs. They don’t know what it is to go hungry. What it is to sleep where the rats live. What it is to…” To fear the chains.
She swiped a hand over her eyes to try and blink that truth from her face. “It’s a pinprick for them!”
Gavin snorted to himself, his head lolling downward, “You think your thievery harmed the Duchess or the Countess?” Sighing, he raised a face that aged twenty years. Weariness seeped from his pores as he whispered, “They aren’t the ones who will have to pay.”
Hayley whipped her head back to the darkness, fearing to find guards swarming her, but it was to his little lockbox that Gavin turned. No doubt he’d already checked it to make certain Hayley didn’t strike at that. Digging out a key always safely kept on his person, he began to undo the lock, hands digging into the coins. The ones he’d fought for, fought the nobles stupid battles to earn. Some of them were probably coated in his own spilled blood.
“For your sake, street rat, you better pray there’s enough here to cover the necklace.”
And if not?
All these months serving beside him, playing the part of helpful squire and not once did Hayley fear him. Fear the man with a body of muscle and sinew honed to an edge to kill as many as he was asked to. Her feet took over, driving her quickly in a circle and out the door. Her elbow smacked into the wood, but Hayley barely noticed the pain, her brain screaming at her to run.
She did. Even with Finn standing on the side, asking what was up, Hayley ran. Even with nothing but the cloudy moonlight to guide her, she ran. Out the gate, down to the road, and further on. She wouldn’t cease because all she felt in the back of her brain were disappointed amber eyes.
Head throbbing in pain, Hayley didn’t stop until she was a good half mile away. The estate’s fires were just stars in the distance, hidden behind trees. A great chill swept up her body, freezing tight to her skin. Stupid. She scooped her hands tight around her chest to try and preserve what little body heat she had. Didn’t even grab a cloak. Or any food.
All she had was the soup in her gut, maybe enough for a day, but it wouldn’t get her to Ostmount.
And then what? She’d stroll into the unforgiving city with nothing in her pockets? Not even a single copper coin to buy up an apple. Damn it!