Squire Hayseed

by S E Zbasnik

  “Why?” Chapman thundered, not about to give up easily. “Why did you sneak out to follow your knight? You’re supposed to follow orders.”

  Shrugging, Hayley said, “It was my first day.”

  “I’m supposed to believe that? You think any of us here are imbecilic enough to believe on this one night in question you broke rank and snuck away from a knight compound just to witness the wedding.”

  “Ask her,” Hayley pointed to Larissa whose eyes shot open wide at the attention. “She caught me sneaking out. Was a right prat about it too, truth be told.”

  “Hayseed!” she shrieked, the dagger twisting for Hayley, but Larissa could do nothing to attack her. Instead, she bowed her head and admitted, “It is the truth. I swear upon the life of my father Ser Giles, I did witness Haysee… the squire sneaking out through the front door.”

  The finality of the pretty squire with an important name backing up Hayley’s claims rattled Chapman. His face lit up cherry red, a vein lifting off his forehead while he kept slapping a toe down onto the ground. Hayley feared he might try charging Gavin, so she slipped in between the two. It wasn’t until she was directly in harm’s way that it struck her Chapman was probably going to kill her first.

  With a very clear signal, Hayley’s hand wrapped around the grip of her sword. She rattled the scabbard, telling the bastard to back off lest she have to put him down. And what would that do? Everyone would see he was going to attack her, or Gavin, or his own daughter. Right?

  Chapman sneered at her presence, his foot slapping harder. Snorts burst from his nose like a rampaging bull and Hayley thrust her shoulder out to try and take some of the blunt.

  A royal hand jangled rings as it cut through the tension-wrapped air. “In light of the evidence, from both the man of the cloth, the squire’s words, and the victim’s as well…” Still, the King glanced towards Chapman as if he planned to carry on with the framing regardless of the truth. What then? Hayley was close to Gavin, so was Larissa. Maybe they could fight their way out. Take down a few guards, run towards the sewers and get lost in the maze.

  “It is clear that Ser Gavin was in fact legally wed to Myra Chapman. Therefore, the court cannot rule against him or find the claims of his damaging Lord Chapman’s property to hold merit.”

  A great whoop rose from Hayley’s throat, her hands slapping together in an ecstatic clapping. She turned in place to watch Myra wrap both her arms around Gavin’s neck. The chains clanked between them, but Myra clearly didn’t care as she pulled her husband to her lips for a kiss.

  “Your Majesty!” Chapman shouted.

  “Remove his manacles already.” Henry waved towards the guards kept at bay by the couple who refused to leave each other’s arms. “This farce is completed.” The King rose from his chair jerking his head towards the steward to get them out.

  Flapping towards him ran Chapman, the man’s entire face sweating from rage. “Henry, you cannot! She is my only daughter!”

  That personal honorific caused the King’s eyes to flame. He spun towards Chapman and in a dismissive tone said, “The law is clear in this matter. And it is your doing, Jason. You should have kept a tighter watch on your brat.”

  With a huff and a cold shoulder upon the man who financed this pointless court, the King stomped out of the room as the entire watching audience applauded. When the manacles fell to the floor, the foot stomping began. Every person cheered wildly as Gavin’s good hand curled up Myra’s cheek.

  Her smile would have melted a mountaintop. She cupped the back of his hand, pressing herself even deeper into his embrace while saying, “My husband.”

  “My wife,” Gavin whispered back before taking one more kiss from the woman he nearly lost everything for.

  “If you are quite finished with that point in my back.” Benedict yanked his arm off of Larissa’s, the Friar staggering away. “I did as you asked, so…”

  Into his extended palm, she dropped the rest of their haul. The friar quickly hid it on himself, his smile rising for the guards left watching. “For the widows and orphans I succor,” he explained to their snorts. With a sneer, Benedict stormed out through the door, no doubt already planning to buy himself all the vices the Bible preached against to celebrate.

  “How did you manage to get him to agree to that?” Hayley gasped to Larissa. She’d doubted Benedict would have moved a foot out of his garden without the full purse in his hand.

  Larissa shrugged. “Same way I always do,” she sheathed her dagger and smiled, “with determination.”

  The jubilant air shattered when a demon of pure rage filled the body of Jason Chapman. He lashed for Myra, but even with a broken arm, Gavin threw himself in the way. “You rotting cuntwhore,” he shrieked at his daughter. His cursing hand tried to reach her, but she was kept well out of range. “Do you know what you’ve done? You shall not get a single copper off of me.”

  “You think I care? Go on, bequeath the entire business to that brain-addled cousin of yours. It’ll be gone in a month after your death.”

  “Self-centered brat!”

  “After what you tried to pull, what mother ignored you doing, I don’t want anything from you. Not your coin, not your affiliations, not your lands. After today, you will never see me again,” Myra shouted at her father. “You’re nothing to me but dust and a shadow!”

  “Myra?” Gavin turned to his wife as if she just doomed herself, but she seemed dead set on her path of freeing herself from her parents. Hayley was on her side in all of this. Didn’t matter if they gave you your flesh and blood, sometimes the kin you were born with weren’t worth the saliva for spitting on.

  Clomping from the side, two guards appeared. The entire defendant’s side glanced up, worried they were going to imprison Gavin on another trumped-up charge, but it was Chapman they grabbed onto. He tried to spin around, mad at anyone daring to touch him, but their grip was firm. As one, the guards began to drag Chapman out the door and away from his daughter and son-in-law.

  But the man wouldn’t go quietly, his words ringing out in the packed courtroom. “You’ll die penniless, starving in the street with a frozen brat stuck to your teat. And don’t bother coming to my doorstep to beg, or I’ll have you beaten!”

  His cruel words hung in the air, silencing the celebration. Gavin had his wife, but he also had an empty purse and two squires in tow. What would that mean for him? Hayley turned to her knight, wanting to ask, but his focus was only on the woman burying her face into his shoulder.

  “We’ll find a way,” he whispered to her, his cheek brushing over her forehead as his breath parted her hair. “I swear to you. Whatever it takes. I will protect you.”

  “I know, I know,” Myra answered. “There’s some coin squirreled away. Even he doesn’t know about it, and contacts. They always liked me more than him. If I can get to the suppliers, explain to them what my father tried to do, then… I don’t know if it’d be enough for, for a proper home for us.”

  The monumental work before them caused Myra to pause, her eyes dripping tears as both Gavin and his wife glanced over at the two squires. Hayley shuffled around on her shoes, feeling the same penny pinch as they did. Even Larissa looked cowed, the proud nose pointed down as she too realized that when it came to sacrifices they’d be the first to get cut.

  Was that to be her future? Back to the streets, fighting people like Digger for territory. Honing her cutting skills while dodging guards, knowing that one day she’d mess up and dance to the hangman’s song? It sounded like a dream when her wrists were in chains and the brand hot on her thigh. Now, she wanted so much better, so much more, but…happy endings didn’t happen to people like Hayley. At least Erin could probably re-home Larissa, find her another knight willing to take on a mouth to feed.

  Hayley would survive. Without the livery, without the armor, without the sword. Without a hand helping her to rise to her feet after she was knocked down. Surviving. That was what Hayley did.

  “Ser,” she said, pinc
hing into her hand to keep from crying, “if you need it of me, I will…I’ll…”

  The amber eyes that once burned at her for stealing, that sympathized with her when she raged over death, folded into an endless pain reverberated in Hayley’s.

  Do it for him. He’s too noble to make the cruel cut. You know that. And you’ll do it because you care.

  “I’ll lea—” Hayley began when a dress swept in from the sides and coughed.

  Hayley winced, unhappy about being interrupted and fearing she might not find the nerve again. Turning her head, she spotted Duchess Bernadine in all her usual dowdy resplendent attire. “Ser Gavin,” the woman tipped her snowy hair to the man.

  He tried to bow, but in doing so his broken arm bounced and Gavin hissed in pain. Waving away anyone helping him, he said, “My Lady.”

  “It appears that you are, in fact, married to the young woman.”

  “Yes.” His eyes darted to Myra, uncertain. Did Bernadine have any clue what this trial meant? Was she really as senile as the King claimed?

  The old woman folded her gloved hands together in thought and placed both upon her stomach. “I would have preferred a man working in my stead to have followed etiquette and asked the girl’s father before whisking her off to a church in the dead of the night…”

  Both Myra and Gavin cringed, their bodies clinging to each other while she held his good hand tight.

  Bernadine smiled. “But given the atrocious behavior of said father, I can understand why you felt the need to forgo it.”

  Gasping, Gavin nodded his head madly. “Yes, my Lady.” A slow chuckle rumbled in his throat, but he kept his eyes upon the ground as if he couldn’t look at Bernadine.

  “When we arrive at the estate, you shall pack up your things in preparation for the renovation.”

  Her knight whipped through every emotion from that single sentence. A grateful sigh, followed by a heartbreaking wince, that ended in utter confusion. Gavin stared down at Bernadine, his entire face puckered but he couldn’t force a breath out to ask for an explanation. “Renovation?” was all he could cling to, the word flopping to the ground.

  “Of course, to increase the living space in that little house I gave you. Two squires plus a wife is hardly enough room.” Bernadine smiled wider, Gavin lifting his eyes up to hers as if she was the sun itself. “While it is being expanded, you and Myra could stay in the main house together.”

  Joy erupted in both of their faces, the married couple turning to each other. When their foreheads knocked together, Gavin cupped Myra’s cheek and risked yet another kiss even as his employer watched. For her part, Bernadine seemed to view the romantic gesture as sweet, her smile never wavering.

  “My Lady,” Gavin’s heart bled, tears of happiness raining down his face. “I cannot thank you enough. For what you have done for me in the past. What you will do for me, for…for my wife.”

  “Think nothing of it.” Bernadine reached towards her knight and cupped his hand in hers. “You once saved my love, I could do nothing less.”

  Saved her love? Hayley twisted over to eye up her knight, but he wasn’t smiling wide. The grin fractured to a grim set as he whispered, “I wish I could have done more.”

  “She died in my arms instead of alone and terrified in a ditch. It mattered,” the Duchess said. She pulled Gavin’s hand over to his wife’s and secured both together for eternity.

  “Thank you,” Gavin gasped yet again before he buried his face into Myra’s cheek as if to hide the outpouring of emotion.

  With a chuckle, the Duchess swept up her skirts and began to walk towards her little entourage. Before she got too far, she waved her hand to say, “I’d suggest adding a few rooms onto the small house. I expect there to be many, many babes born there.”

  “Babies,” Gavin whispered, his good hand sliding down to cup Myra’s stomach.

  As she curled her fingers over the back of his, holding them tight, Myra added, “Who’d have thought, my love?”

  After another heart gushing kiss, Gavin turned to the two awkward squires left sitting at his doorstep. “Come, let’s go home. Let’s all of us go home.”

  Together, all four of them worked their way towards the door with the promise of a new future ahead. Gavin clung tight to his love, Myra happy to help shield his broken arm. Even Hayley took in a breath. Sure, she was stuck with Larissa, but…the estate was a big place. Maybe she wouldn’t see her that often.

  “Ser,” Hayley said as they struck daylight, “we might want to get you some pants first.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Everyone had to meet Gavin’s secret wife; the entire estate came running when they strolled in through the gate. Myra handled it all with tenuous but polite small talk while Gavin beamed brighter than the sun. As the welcoming committee swamped her knight and his lady, Hayley wandered off towards the stables.

  She spotted Larissa guiding a wary Gringolet into the box. When Hayley arrived, the girl began to sift through the various grains in a sack and ladle them out in the trough. The horse nudged closer, as greedy for food as they all were, when a hand lashed out to bop his nose away.

  “What are ya doing?!” Finn howled. He tried to grab at her serving spoon, but Larissa was quicker.

  “Feeding, as one does to a horse that is hungry,” she needlessly explained, earning a great eye roll from Finn.

  “No, what ya are about to do is give him colic, ya balmy idiot,” he chastised her, his back bumping into Gringolet’s nose to keep it away while he scooped all of the fancy feed out. “Horse fresh off a run needs light food. This’ll just inflame his guts!”

  Larissa folded her arms and puffed her chest out to try and overpower Finn. “And what makes you think you know anything about these beasts?”

  “They’re my horses!”

  “Really? A minor stablehand with…holes in his trousers,” she pointed towards a mass of them around the knees, “owns four fine quality riding horses?”

  “Well,” Finn sneered, “not own owns. But I’m in charge of ‘em. What do you know, pansy pants?”

  “Pansy pants?” Larissa scoffed. “That’s the best you can procure? How sad.” She easily avoided Finn’s questions of her qualifications, Larissa folding her prissy arms tight to her chest as she leaned back. The entire time Gringolet kept trying to knock Finn’s hands apart and deliver the tasty treats into his mouth.

  Cursing under his breath, he marched towards the bag in an attempt to save Gringolet’s tummy from troubles, when his stormy eyes swung over to find the silent girl watching. “Hayseed!” Finn gasped, then he mouthed, “help me!”

  Hayley laughed and held up her hands. No way, he was in his own quagmire. Welcome to Larissa, this was going to be your life…both of their lives, for some years to come.

  The exclamation drew Larissa’s attention as she turned to Finn. “You call her Hayseed as well?”

  “Yeah.” He stuck his jaw out, before narrowing his eyes. “Why?”

  With a shake of her head, Hayley left Finn alone to realize the current thorn in his side was why he kept finding it funny to refuse to speak her name. Even with the stable’s walls in the way she could practically hear his forehead turning red. It was obvious he couldn’t stand Larissa and the idea of repeating anything from her lips was like chewing soap.

  “By the way,” Larissa’s snide voice cut out the open windows, “that saddle is worn and should be repaired.”

  “I bloody well know about saddles!” Finn’s screams broke through the air, Hayley chuckling the entire time. It was nice to see nothing really changed.

  She glanced over her shoulder to watch Myra attempting to knot a scarf in her hair with Ania’s help. Lady Bernadine was being assisted to the manor by Gavin, no doubt the two discussing where the newlyweds would be quartering until the house could be expanded. Ugh, Hayley was probably going to have to fight Larissa on space. No doubt Miss pansy pants thought she deserved the whole bedroom while ‘Hayseed’ belonged in the pantry.
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  But that was a fight for another day. Stretching her legs, Hayley’s steps turned towards her little flock of geese and ducks. A handful of goslings were chasing after a single mother who must have been playing babysitter while the rest splashed in the water trough. The protective fathers hissed at Hayley drawing too close to their young, never about to give an inch. Shaking her head at the pointless display of machismo, Hayley grabbed onto the dangling rope and glanced upwards.

  Things were going to change. Judging by how the two gleamed at the prospect, Myra was going to have her own baby waddling around in ten months time. What then? Would the two squires be put on babysitting duty? Or, knowing her knight, would he armor up his own newborn child and carry him or her everywhere with him?

  What came next?

  “I see you changed it.”

  Hayley turned away from the shining sky to watch Gavin cross towards her. The sling on his arm was blindingly white, as fresh as hand churned cream. He yet wore the scars and bruises from his time in the dungeon, but the smile in his eyes and bounce in his gait seemed to erase all the pain.

  At her look of confusion, he pointed up towards the beam. “My carving. It’s much better.”

  Hayley smiled, her cheeks burning at the embarrassment of her schmaltz from earlier. “Thank you, Ser.”

  “Erin informed me that you did not wait by Myra’s side for the night. In fact, she had no concept of where you vanished off to.”

  Shit. Hayley knew it’d be coming, she just hoped for a few days break. Maybe enough time to pass so he’d sort of forget that part and wallow in his joy instead. “I was…I was trying to, uh…ya know.”

  Gavin’s eyes melted into pure compassion, his working hand gripping tight to Hayley’s shoulder. “Thank you, for what you did. For what you sacrificed for me.”

  “I didn’t do anything…” Hayley gulped, about to be buried under her pile of lies. “Larissa helped as well.”

  “Trying to share the blame or…?”

  “No, just,” Hayley stirred her foot in the dirt, barely flinching at the rise of honking from the geese, “she didn’t have to help me, but she did. And, okay, maybe I could have done it without her. Probably. But, I thought it best to tell you. That she helped. That she doesn’t hate you anyway.”