Squire Hayseed

Hayseed

"Squire," the voice bounced through the small sitting room causing Hayley to whip her head up from a basin. Water slushed down her nose, the greasy soap-sludge pooling on the edge of a towel. She drew her hands back to wipe herself a path out of the ice water and looked first at Gavin, then to a stranger at his side.

"This is Ania," he said tipping towards the girl with her hands bundled around a basket. She looked a few years older than Hayley, though some of that could be due to her having more of that lady flesh up top and below. Her face had that wholesome fresh look save a large chalk-white birthmark splattered on the side of her left cheek. She'd tucked all her hair up under a kerchief, hiding away whatever color it was, but Hayley'd guess black or a dark brown if pressed.

"Hi," Hayley limply threw her hand out in a wave.

Gavin tapped his hand upon Ania's shoulder and the girl pivoted her head to stare right up at him, "Hayley is my new squire. She will be assisting me with my duties both here and away."

The new girl (okay, Hayley was technically the new girl) smiled wide and nodded her head, "Understood." Her voice was flat as unleavened bread, but the smile so bright it burned on her cheeks. Bit odd.

"Ania here is..." Gavin began when Hayley interrupted.

"A servant?" Hayley said without thought. She glanced away towards the rising line of the sun, when she felt Ania's grey-brown eyes piercing into her. Crap, was she not supposed to speak again? She thought that was only around the nobs not everyone.

"The chambermaid that Lady Bernadine has kindly given us use of. She handles minor matters, the occasional upkeep on our little house when we are out."

"Out meaning?"

"Sent to another settlement in the kingdom," Gavin said, his back rod straight as his eyes burned.

"And when we're in?" Hayley asked, wondering what the point of telling her about Ania was.

"You shall handle the maintenance, cooking, cleaning, other matters as they become important. Usually, I would leave you in Ania's care for training for the day." He paused in talking at Hayley, to focus on Ania instead. Her wide eyes beamed into the Knight's face, same as how everyone else looked at him.

"What does she know?" Ania asked at Gavin.

Hayley snorted, "When people are being rude." She whispered it loud enough for the others to hear, but only her boss glared at her. Sweet, naive Ania continued staring up at him as if he was a saint.

"Not much, I suspect," he said right to Ania, but there was a flicker of a glare at Hayley. "I only wished for you to be acquainted."

Ania reached her hand out far towards Hayley, her face shining so bright it really brought her white mark into relief. "A pleasure to meet you."

"Uh," Hayley swiped her wet palm down her pants and reached to grasp the proffered handshake, "Yeah. Nice to, well, maybe not nice. Who knows. It's all an adventure."

The girl's lips pinched in deep concentration a moment before she laughed and nodded, "Yes, a grand one often involving the scrubbing of dirty floors and shoveling shit from one mountain to the next."

Okay. Hayley cracked at that, nodding her head in agreement. Maybe she could get on with Ania after all. Once she got used to how forcefully she stared at everyone. It felt like the girl was trying to capture the soul of whoever was talking.

Dropping the hand she offered, Ania turned to Gavin, "Do you require anything else from me, Ser?"

"No," he shook his head, "I only need my squire for the day, but thank you."