by S E Zbasnik
They wanted privacy for whatever they were talking about. Sharing.
A hot stone plummeted into her stomach, burning its way through all of Hayley’s guts as she watched the innocent but intimate moment. “I don’t understand,” her mouth spoke without meaning to.
“What?” Myra sidled up closer, almost as if she was under orders to keep Hayley away from the bonding.
“Why he did it.” It stewed in her brain the longer she sat in the sweltering stands. If there were rumors, if there were so many people who seemed to be aware without knowing and they didn’t do anything, why was Gavin the one to leap into the fray? “He was his friend, his best friend, and…one word from me and he charges right in to save the day.”
He didn’t even flinch, didn’t demand proof like the others. Gavin believed her, believed Larissa without a qualm. It sent him charging through the gates of hell like the only angel of justice in the world.
Myra sighed through her nose, her teeth biting onto her lip as she watched her husband console Larissa. “There are many people in this world who carry the same stigma, and some who do what they can to stop it from happening ever again.”
Was she saying…? Hayley whipped her head back to the pair of silhouettes. It was obvious Larissa was crying, her hands pressed to her eyes. As Gavin pulled out a familiar kerchief for her, Larissa suddenly launched both hands towards him and pulled her face to his chest. The knight limply patted her back but didn’t shake her away.
They were bonded, probably even tighter than anything he had with Hayley. And why not? Larissa was the better trained, better behaved, better-looking squire. She ached to be a knight while Hayley stumbled into this. Larissa shared far more in common with Gavin than some street rat escaping the chains ever could.
And you were the one to bring them together, Hayseed. You doomed yourself because you thought doing the right thing was better than doing nothing. Good job.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
“You have two squires in tow?”
Lady Bernadine’s clucking tongue rang out over the three weary heads. Hayley tried to not wince as her fingers kept scratching at a patch of peeling skin on her forearm. While the Duchess’ eyes were upon the bowed head of Larissa, the edge of them kept whipping over to the old squire.
“Yes, my Lady,” Gavin began yet again, his voice in full on grovel. It’d been a long walk back to the estate. They’d stayed until a winner was crowned for the Tourney — some tall man with thighs the size of hams who Hayley’d never seen before. Then they were off, Gavin cringing in the saddle with his broken arm, Larissa close on his side, and Hayley trying to glare her head clean off from behind. It was barely a moment through the gates before Bernadine came flocking out to greet them. She’d seemed ecstatic to hear of the great wins of her champion until she spotted the sling then the extra girl behind.
“This is most unorthodox, is it not?” Bernadine kept one eyebrow perched up in a continuous point.
“It is.” Gavin winced. “But I can assure you…”
“My Lady,” Larissa stepped forward, though her head remained bowed and hands folded politely before her, “I humbly thank you for your presence and allowing me a moment in your company. I intend to serve my knight to the best of my abilities.”
Hayley hissed at the ‘my knight’ drawing the ire of the mighty Duchess away from the respectful Larissa to that other squire. The old, rotten one.
Rolling her shoulders inside a heavy robe, Bernadine sighed, “I suppose there is no law against another remaining on the grounds.”
“Thank you ever so much, my Lady.” Larissa all but fell to her knees to kiss the woman’s feet. She even blushed and bloody curtsied.
That brought a smile to the old bat’s weathered cheeks. Her mummified hand cupped Larissa’s porcelain chin as the woman mused, “So polite.” Her eyes darted over to Gavin whom she less than quietly pulled into a private commune, “Perhaps in time you will find favor with one squire over another.”
Each barb from the bog lady’s tongue caught under Hayley’s skin, but she didn’t flinch. She should have known Larissa’d be the best at winning over the nobility. After all, she acted as if her nose was so high it snagged in her hat just as good as any of the gentry. No wonder Bernadine would like her.
No wonder Gavin would as well.
Hayley’s hooded eyes drifted over to her knight who was busy ladling thanks upon Bernadine. If things had gone right he’d be announcing his disentanglement from her and be planning to buy a small farm to move his wife into. But no, they were all shackled back here along with a new pain in tow. After thanking his Duchess one more time, then asking for her leave, Gavin ushered both girls back to the little house.
Once behind the safety of the door, Gavin groaned. “I could sleep for a month…” He reached for the kindling piled up beside the hearth but hissed from the injury.
“I’ll handle that, Ser,” Larissa spoke up fast before Hayley even had a chance. So it was already starting. At the tourney, Larissa seemed to spend all her time inside the tent while Hayley and Gavin were watching the fights, but now there was no getting away from her. No squire table Hayley could sit at, suffering the sympathetic looks from the others. They knew what was going down. They knew how this had to end.
Larissa gathered dried twigs in her hands, about to crack them in half to make a pile, when Gavin said, “That’s all right. We’re all exhausted. That can be dealt with in the morning.”
“Hot as balls in here anyway,” Hayley mused to herself, which caused the prim princess to glare in her direction. Oh no, she dared to soil those perfect ears. It was the end times.
Her knight snickered. “Quite. Though at least it is off the ground.”
“I was kinda getting used to the bugs. There was a field mouse that’d hide in my shoe in the night,” Hayley said. She picked up her knight’s things and carried them towards his bedroom. “Was sneaking him a few bites here and there.”
“Hence why he was always in your shoe.” Gavin sighed while cracking open the door to his refuge. At the threshold, he paused and glanced back.
Standing by the frozen fireplace, Larissa’s fingers kept a tight lock to the bundle of useless twigs. She mouthed to herself while staring through the floor. “Ah, Hayley,” Gavin began, catching her attention. “Can you show Larissa the bathhouse should she need to use it?”
“I guess…I mean sure, Ser.”
“If it’s all the same, Master,” Larissa whispered. The M word set Hayley’s teeth on edge, her hand splaying over the tattoo. “I’d prefer to sleep as well.”
“Right, we don’t have a bed set up for you yet.” The words seemed to land on Larissa’s head like hail, each syllable knocking her brow lower. “But for the moment you can stay with Hayley.”
“What?” Her body locked in tight. ‘Like hell she could’ banged around in Hayley’s brain but she kept that bit off.
Her knight’s amber eyes burned into hers, silent warnings woven inside as he simply said, “Please.”
“Fine,” Hayley slapped her hands to her legs and unceremoniously hurled all of Gavin’s things into his room. The bag plopped on a rug barely lit by the candles in the room outside. Turning to face Larissa, Hayley stopped dead as the girl opened her mouth.
“Do you require anything else, Ser?” Her smile was obedient, her tone quaint. She was going right for the throat at the start.
Gavin was already halfway into his room before he paused and turned to look at the misplaced squire. “No, thank you. Please, take the night to yourself. Yourselves. I have…business to attend to.”
Hayley flinched at that, well aware of the light lockbox inside his room. She wanted to bring him a win and instead, her knight nearly lost everything. With another bow of his head, Gavin slipped into his room and shut the door.
“Well.” Hayley slapped her hands into her thighs. She didn’t have a follow up because she didn’t want there to be one. Show Larissa around? Let her into her bed? Th
at was Hayley’s bed! She worked hard to earn it. Okay, so she was given it on day one, but every day after that…ignoring the bit of stealing. Or the times when she’d skip out on her duties in order to snog Finn. Or…
You think he’d choose you? Why? Look at her, Larissa is the perfect squire. Too perfect, probably. And the best of the best, she won the tourney. She doesn’t talk back. She probably does all her chores with a pretty smile.
Hayley’s empty guts knotted into a noose as she pushed on the door Gavin gave her. With a flint strike upon the candle, enough light illuminated her bed high above the pantry.
“That’s it?” Larissa scoffed in her usual bitter mood.
“Yep.”
“You sleep above a barrel of moldy onions?” she couldn’t sound more horrified if she tried.
Hayley bared her teeth as she began the quick climb to her oasis. “Where else ya think I should be sleeping, in my knight’s bed?”
The air snapped in an instant, Larissa’s growl transforming into a whimper as she stepped back into the stone kitchen. A shuddered breath passed her lips as she wrapped her hands tighter around herself.
“I didn’t mean it like…” Hayley bashed her hands together, getting tired of having to walk around on eggshells with her. Larissa was a pain and sunk her fangs in every chance she had, but Hayley spoke one wrong word and suddenly she was the bully picking on the poor, hurt girl. It wasn’t fair.
“Look,” Hayley said, “we got one bed. It’s this.”
“I am not sleeping up there,” Larissa insisted. The haughty voice was back, but her hands wouldn’t stop hugging herself tight.
“Why? Scared of heights?”
“No,” she snarled, but Hayley suspected she hit close to the truth. “I am bothered by the idea of-of having to spend my evenings near so much rotting veg.”
“This rotting veg is what you’ll be eating for meals, Princess.”
Snarling, Larissa rooted around in her bag. There were three in total filled with the things she’d had in Frederick’s tent. It was all that remained of her life, least unless someone back at their old compound wanted to ship it forward. Gavin rather doubted that would happen and even suggested buying Larissa anything she might need. As if she deserved to have him spend even more of his precious coin on her.
It wasn’t the socks or doublets with extra support the girl reached for but her bedroll. Shaking out the dirt and grass from all the campsites to reach home, Larissa laid it out upon the stones of the kitchen. “I shall sleep here.”
“On the ground,” Hayley surmised.
Larissa had barely yanked off her boots and socks before she slumped onto the thin pallet and tucked a blanket up to her chin. “It keeps me from having to look at you.”
“Whatever.” Twisting away, Hayley faced the dug-out shelves while she heard Larissa trying to find a comfy spot on the stones. “But it ain’t my doing that sent you there. And I’ll tell Gavin as such.”
Only the sounds of the girl fighting against her bedding answered her.
“Did ya hear me?” Hayley kept insisting, but Larissa was in no more mood to talk to her. Fine. She didn’t want to talk to her either. It was a mess, but Hayley wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
Nestling deeper into her blanket, Hayley stretched out upon the mattress she missed with every pang in her heart. Behind her head, she could hear Larissa flopping about like a dying fish. Maybe she wouldn’t find anything comfortable. Maybe she’d truck up to the estate and ask Lady Bernadine for a bed. Maybe she’d stay with the Duchess and let Hayley and Gavin alone.
Or…maybe she’d worm her way into Gavin’s heart twice as fast as she did into Frederick’s.
It was a lonely, chain-rattling sleep Hayley fell into.
She woke to the sound of pans bouncing into one another. Her eyes opened just as a handle banged into her ankle. “Oi!” Hayley cried, twisting in her bed to spy Larissa with the attacking pot in her hand. “Whatcha doing?!”
Sitting up fast, Hayley launched off her bed, nearly landing upon Larissa. The girl slunk away, both hands wrapped around the pot while Hayley sized her up. As Hayley tested her knuckles, the scent of browned butter and frying eggs knocked about her guts with a powerful force. Peering out of the stone room, Hayley caught that the fireplace was hopping with flames. “What are you doing?”
Larissa shook back her braided hair and shot her nose higher. “I am cooking breakfast.” With that, she stomped towards the fire, wrapped a towel around her hand, and tested the frying pan by shaking it.
“What for?” Hayley tried to rub the gunk out of her eyes, when she noticed that Larissa had not only folded up her bedroll, she’d fetched a pail of water to wash up, and dressed. Hayley clawed a hand over her stomach, rifling against the nightgown that clipped near her calves.
“What do you mean, what for? For food, for…my knight,” Larissa sneered, already back to checking on the eggs before she shook them onto a plate beside the hearth.
The siren call of butter fried eggs with the yolks running all over the browned whites drew Hayley closer. She couldn’t deny her chops salivating for a taste, but as Larissa tried to clean any runoff from the plate, Hayley chuckled.
“Well, one, he don’t like being woken up for nothing or nobody.” She paused and thought of Myra. Okay, he’d probably wake up for her. But that’d be it.
“I heard him already moving about when I was fetching water,” Larissa said with a little tiff. She clearly thought she had this all planned out. Wake before dawn and prep everything perfectly for a knight she knew nothing about.
Hayley was practically tenting her fingers in joy at the next bit. Leaning closer, she sighed. “Second, he don’t eat that stuff in the morning.”
Her green eyes narrowed. “You’re lying.”
“Says it…blocks up his energy this early. We always eat with Ania in the main kitchen. Mostly some oats and grains. Sometimes he adds syrup, but only for big days.”
Larissa’s eyes grew wider as she digested this fact before a sly smile rose. “Clever. Well, not really. I easily see through you, Hayseed. You cannot trick me.” Rising to her feet, the coveted plate in hand, Larissa stepped to Gavin’s door and knocked upon it.
“Whatever.” Hayley shrugged, washing her hands of the whole thing.
“Yes?” Gavin called, his voice piqued. He really didn’t like being summoned out of his room until he was ready.
“I have something for you, Ser.” Larissa smiled like an angel statue.
It took a moment before the door opened to her, Gavin struggling to slide a shirt on over his broken arm. His eyes darted to the girl before him, then flickered to Hayley. “What is it?” he sounded perturbed as if he expected to be told there was a fire outside.
“Here.” Larissa spun the plate around towards him.
Gavin gulped at the offering. “Ah, I don’t really enjoy…” He turned to Hayley and said, “Perhaps she didn’t tell you, most mornings I prefer to dine in the kitchens.”
“Hey, I did say it. She didn’t listen,” Hayley shouted back, not about to be dragged down for Larissa’s doings.
The man patted a hand against Larissa’s shoulder, trying to get her to step back. For her part, Larissa stared long and hard at the egg cooling on the plate. She shuffled away, giving Gavin enough space to dart around the room. Hayley tossed him his usual towel and shaving kit without thought, but when Gavin reached for the empty basin he’d fill personally, she coughed.
“Actually, Larissa already got us water. It’s over there.”
Gavin broke from his usual routine that required no words until food was in their guts. Turning to the girl staring at her eggs, he put on a smile. “Thank you.” It wasn’t enough to pull Larissa up from her glower.
While attempting to shave away the hairs on his face with only one working hand, Gavin said, “Lady Bernadine has plans to attend to Ostmount.” He dipped the razor’s edge into the water, a line of blood spooling from it. “And I shal
l accompany her.”
“When?” Hayley asked. She’d just gotten used to sleeping off the ground and now it was back to random camping in the woods. Though it’d be nice to see Ostmount again. Maybe he’d even let her wander the marketplace alone.
“Today,” Gavin said, surprising both girls. “Which is why I shall be going it alone. You both shall remain here, resting and recuperating.”
“Ser!” Hayley shouted, nearly diving towards his face and rattling the hand holding a razor. “You can’t, you’d…you’re injured. You’ll need me.”
“I will be fine. This time of year, all of the bandits are still sleeping off their own time at the Tourney. I doubt there will be anything exciting.”
“Then why go at all?” Hayley sputtered. He was going to leave her here alone with her? No. The only reason Hayley hadn’t hauled off and smacked the hell out of Larissa was because Gavin was watching. The second his back was turned she could make no promises.
“Squire…” Gavin dipped his razor through the water one last time. His eyes darted up to Hayley’s and the stoic indifference melted in an instant. Pain bubbled inside the amber fields, reminding Hayley who else lived in Ostmount.
“I could help still. Stay at the compound, or find somewhere else while you, uh…” She waved her hand around, trying to avoid saying Myra’s name.
Gavin chuckled. “It is all right. I have, sadly, broken my arm before. Probably why this happened so easily. Remain here. Show Larissa around, get her used to the ins and outs of our place if you please.”
Her eyes darted over to the girl still glaring at her eggs. Great. She was going to be saddled with that for a few days. Or a week. Or…please no longer than a week. “Fine,” Hayley spat out, causing Gavin to laugh once more.
Drying off his razor, he rose from the bowl and darted to the door. “After breakfast, please saddle Gringolet for me. I suspect we shall leave before noon.”