Taniel (The Taverner's Daughter I)

7: Taniel

Erin, Father's new barmaid, studied me from underneath her long eyelashes as we tucked in the sheet on our respective side of the bed.  

"If your bottom lip gets any lower," she said, "You'll be stepping on it. I heard about you hanging around the castle."

My jaw tightened. "I wasn't hanging about. I wanted work."

"You have a job here."

I sighed. "I miss the dragonriders now that I'm not allowed in the common room."

"Got a thing for 'riders, have you?" Erin grinned. "Haven't we all," she said.

"It's not like that, Erin. We just talk about their dragons."

"Ever flown?"

"Of course not," I snapped. "They don't let just anyone on them."

Erin flicked the eiderdown over the bed. When done tucking in her end, she straightened and stared at me until I had to meet her gaze.

"Taniel, I don't know why you don't like me."

"I don't even know you," I retorted.

She fixed me with her pale eyes. "Peter said you haven't worked out front for months. I didn't take your job."

Looking down, I applied myself to smoothing the bedclothes. The mention of my unbetrothed threw my mind on a different track. Maybe I could shift his attention to Erin. It should not be too hard. My lips lifted in an unwomanly sneer as I plumped a pillow.

Admiration followed Erin.

The blokes downstairs probably did not even know what her face looked like. I wondered how many body-sculpting dresses she had. She wore a bright yellow one today though, while she helped me catch up on my work, a voluminous pinafore hid her abundant curves. Peter did not need me. He already had half the tavern.

"What?" Erin said, her voice sharp.

I dropped my top lip. "Nothing," I mumbled, blushing, finding myself unable to come up with anything clever to say.

She carried sheets over to the other bed.

We smoothed and tucked in unison, without further talk. I wanted to ask her why she insisted on helping me. Ask her why she kept trying to be my friend. She was old enough to be my mother and I had managed just fine without a mother.

I did not need one now.

The bed done, I made myself smile as I thanked her for the help. After Erin had gone, I put out clean chamber pots and gave the rooms a quick dust.

With my upstairs tasks done, I found the laundry girls were long gone and Katie had already picked the vegetables for the evening.

I helped myself to an apple while I was in the kitchen, then went outside and leaned over the back gate and looked over the cow paddock. There was little point in wishing I could linger in my favourite spot by the creek, or watch the dragons. I regretted my time wasted up at the castle this morning.

I eyed the ridge rising behind the small wood beyond the cows. The presence of a firedrake told me that the changing of the watch had already begun. If Father's father had purchased the tavern at the other end of the street, I might see dragons offloading their riders at the watchward before coasting down to the dragonhold.

I could see none of it, not from here. But, if I hurried with totting the numbers, I might yet catch one feeding before the sun set.

As I dragged myself back inside, I went over my conversation with Erin. Somewhat shamed, I resolved to improve my attitude towards her. Father had only given her the job because she had shown up and declared she could double his custom. It had naught to do with me.

I pushed open the door to the den, breathing in the welcoming fatherly smell. I sat in Father's big leather chair behind the desk, peeled back the ledger at the marker, positioned the inkwell, and reached for the pen. Part of me was glad to be still here. It might be strange living in a castle. Exciting, no doubt, what with all the dragon comings and goings, but odd all the same.

"Knock, knock," said Peter, poking his head into the room and grinning at me like an idiot. "Are you over your snoot, my love?"

I hurled the apple core. He ducked. It thumped off the doorjamb.

He laughed. "I take it you don't want to make those wedding arrangements just yet, my lovely."

"Piss off," I snarled.

Peter's laughter marked his progress back to the common room. I sighed, pushed off from the desk, and went to the doorway to pick up the splattered apple.

I would never wed that fool.

***

21 May 2021: Final update, synchronising Wattpad, Book Funnel and Kindle versions.

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