All in a Day\'s Work

[Existentially Odd]

Captain Wilson wasn’t sure what made her look in just the right direction, at exactly the right moment.
 
She’d been chatting to Gallagher, the Stable Manager, as both a courtesy and as part of the conclusion of her morning rounds, their conversation relaxed and lasting for about half an hour or so. Their topic wasn’t anything particularly close to her heart (not at the moment anyway, in her current state of mind), but she was beholden to enquire after the progress of the Queen’s mare, which was in foal to one of Lord Dagger’s stallions. The Queen was very fond of her beast – to the point that it had occurred to Lam in more than one thought that it was as if the woman was giving birth, not the horse – and nervous about the mare’s first foaling. She could drop at any time now and the Queen, in all her pampered wisdom, wanted to be there for it.
 
It was a logistical nightmare coordinating the monarch’s arrival and safe presence at such an open establishment for the Gods-only-knew however many hours it took for a mare to birth a foal, and a headache Wilson could do without. The Queen would have her way, however, and the King would have it no other way. The fact that Dagger would probably want to smarm his way in for a look didn’t help the captain – primary guard of the monarchy - anticipate the moment with any less dread, either.
 
Thankfully, Gallagher had assured her it would be another week in his humble opinion – and with a flashing smile, exceptionally tall and muscled frame topped by golden curls and huge blue eyes, there was nothing humble about the young man at all – and so she’d relaxed and stayed to chat. She enjoyed speaking with him, jesting and flirting. Both knew it was all in fun (he was at least five years her junior, for a start!) but it certainly made the time discussing where guards would need to be stationed and just how much sawdust would need to be in the foaling manger beforehand pass much more pleasantly.
 
So at last she was satisfied, had left him with a chuckle and a wink and walked down along the main corridor on the first floor. Her good humour faded in an instant when she’d caught sight of her. Maybe it was the fact that Lord Dagger had been included in the discussion and rampant in her thoughts, that had made her so aware. She wasn’t sure. Whatever it was, on her way out, she happened to glance down an aisle and see the black-haired woman leaning calm-as-you-please against a stall door, gawping around the place like a snot-faced child in a lolly shop.
 
Lam stiffened, immediately reaching this conclusion of recognition, then doubting herself. She’d only seen the woman a couple of days before, and then only at a glance as Dagger secreted her into the fashion shop, could she really be seeing her again? After a moment of staring and observing the woman in animated conversation with someone unseen – a stable hand emerged not a minute later, leading the horse out of the stall and handing the reins to the dark-haired strumpet while he returned to muck it out – the captain headed down the aisle.
 
It was her. She was sure of it.
 
“Hoi! You! What business have you here? Are you an employee to be handling these horses?” Wilson demanded in her most authoritative voice as she stepped up beside the girl, chin held high and gaze directed down her aquiline nose.
 
And the stranger was a girl, a mere chit of a thing, scrawny and plain looking (in Lam’s determined view at that precise moment, anyway), all of perhaps twenty seasons. Dagger had really sunk to new depths this time; she was unable to keep her lip from curling a fraction at the thought of the two of them together. If this was what he’d passed her up for, he was welcome to rot in… her.

[Erebus]

With a few coy smiles and promises that she\'d be very careful and wouldn\'t jump onto the horse\'s back and ride away from the stables, she was handed the animal\'s lead. She stared dazedly at the giant beast (a good five hands taller than she) until it impolitely whuffed at her hair and began nibbling at a piece that had escaped the leather thong tying the rest back.
 
Barely restraining a giggle, she reached up to allow the horse to sniff at her fingers (as the stable boy had instructed her to do) before stroking its velvety soft muzzle. It was nothing like craggy old nags she usually came into contact with. Proud and elegant, it also was very intelligent - or at least curious to see what was going on in its stable.
 
It was when the horse took a step forward and swung its head around to peer inside that Keely understood the commotion being raised concerned her. Without a huge neck blocking her line of vision, it was hard not to see that the woman demanding to know what was going on happened to be looking and walking directly toward her.
 
She shifted the rope attached to the horse\'s halter to her opposite hand and turned to face the guard. What business did she have here? She shrugged. "What business does everyone else have at the stables? I came here to see the horses."
 
Keely then tried to discreetly peer at the captain\'s (for she had finally noticed the ribbon attached to her breast marking her as such) boots, to figure out if she\'d stepped in a pile of manure. Certainly something had placed her in a bad mood, because Keely didn\'t think she\'d broken any laws by entering the stable and helping out so she could get a little closer to the animals there. "The stable boy is letting me help, so I didn\'t think I was doing anything wrong." She smiled tightly at the other woman. "Unless there was a law passed recently that I\'m breaking."

[Existentially Odd]

And ohhh wasn’t the little bed-warmer uppity and calm in her snubbing of authority?  How dare she bring up the law to the one who enforced it daily, who sweated blood and tears to protect it and see that it held sway in the entire kingdom? Who in Talon’s wrath did she think she was? She was nothing! No-one! She was merely some slithery little street-eel who’d landed herself a brand new wet spot beneath a lord that obviously lacked a discriminating bone in his debatably human body, who now felt she had the run of the place and could waltz anywhere at will!
   
   Wilson’s mind was a tumultuous, rambling mess, but she managed to not give it away too obviously. She felt her cheeks flush, her eyes narrow, her lips thin and her right fist clench (her left held a sliver of papers wrapped in a leather sheath that she’d brought in case she’d needed to take note of any part of her discussion with Gallagher) but she did a mental stocktake and felt she appeared as cool as this little painted whore did. Cooler, even. In control, certainly. Well, except for her slightly accelerated breathing, perhaps. And… maybe the ramrod quality her spine had developed. And the glare of pure hatred.
   
   “As a matter of fact,” the captain ground out, taking a step closer to the brazen wench, drawing herself up to her full, imposing height, “not just anyone is allowed into the stables.” To further make her point, she took a moment to pull back minutely and look the girl over in as condescending a manner as she was capable. “You need to be either approved as a worker by the,” another pause for effect – this one punctuated by a vague smirk of triumph, “guards, or you need to actually be paying to stable a horse here.  Paying with money, that is.  It’s what the horses here are worth a lot of.  And your helpful little consort there ought to know better.” A harsh nod of her head was all that was necessary to indicate the stable hand and finalise the implication that the young harlot was none too choosy with her favours, all in one efficient go. “I’m sure he’ll regret it when he no longer has a job here.”
   
   She felt, rather than saw, the young man in question frozen in place within the horse stall, staring at them. Lam, however, only had eyes for the grey ones directly beneath her sparking green ones.

[Erebus]

Keely found herself wishing dearly she had a shovel and a way to take back her brash comments.  Her comments had already been made, and she wasn\'t aware of any way to erase them, so shovel it was.  She could use it to either dig herself a hole to hide in or she could use it to keep the captain away from her.  From the way the woman snarled at her, she\'d need something to defend herself with, especially since it appeared her mind was going numb and she couldn\'t think of anything to say in retort.  

By what she had gathered, the other thought her no better than the whores at the bathhouse - even worse, one to work her charms on anyone that could get her into the places she wanted.  True, she hadn\'t said exactly that, but the implication hadn\'t been lost on her.  

Instinctively, she shrank into herself when the captain stepped forward and towered over her.  Only when the threat was made against the stable boy\'s job did she find her tongue again.  "I would not have come in here if I\'d been aware it would cost someone their livelihood," she spat.  "I\'ll leave now."  

She could only hope by the time she managed to urge the horse back into its stable that the captain would understand she was quite serious about doing just that.  "Sorry," she mumbled at the man as she pulled the horse\'s head toward the stable opening and then shoved at the beast\'s rump to push it forward.  

If the captain didn\'t move out of the way and spent the next moon nursing crushed toes, Keely would be able to glean some small satisfaction from today\'s happenings.

[Existentially Odd]

Her bad mood somewhat appeased by the girl\'s unqualified deference, Captain Wilson stepped aside and observed the return of the horse to the stable boy.  At no point did she feel in danger of being trod on, as comfortable as she was with such animals.  She also didn\'t have any plans to pursue the boy\'s dismissal, seeing as he looked so scared when she glanced at him.  There would, however, be a reprimand; he really couldn\'t allow any stranger to walk in off the street and play with the thoroughbreds.
 
She muttered to herself then, in as snide a voice as she\'d heard come from her own lips in quite some time.  Her expression was equally as tart as her gaze found the wretched interloper once the horse no longer blocked her line of sight.
 
"Mmm, you have a lot to be sorry for."  It was softly spoken, but she wouldn\'t be at all displeased if the little mattress decoration heard it.

[Erebus]

Keely had heard the comment.  She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before leaving the stall.  It would have been bad enough if she\'d been dealing with a simple guard, but this was a captain, and if she wasn\'t careful, she\'d spend a few nights locked in a dungeon she\'d been careful to avoid for most her life.  
 
Knowing all this, and realizing what a dangerous position she was in did not stop her from wanting to know why she deserved such treatment.  If she\'d stolen the horse, she\'d understand, but all she\'d been doing was petting at it.
 
"Is that so?" She asked and sighed when she grasped that she\'d taken the bait.  The question had already been asked, though, and in a civil-enough tone of voice, so she didn\'t see any harm in standing in front of the woman and awaiting her answer.

[Existentially Odd]

"Yes it is," the captain returned in a sickly sweet voice, her expression smug as she was backchatted.
 
For a moment or two - those during which the girl had held her tongue - she\'d almost felt bad for harassing this suddenly obedient citizen. Wilson’s rationale was simple and fuelled by jealousy; hurt the strumpet, hurt Dagger. A two-fold plan, really, but it had begun to unravel when the female was appropriately subdued and respectful and Lam was getting the feeling that her method was more akin to shooting the messenger and burning the message than making a point that would hit Dagger where it hurt.
 
Then there’d been that neatly phrased question - and a fair one it was - but like a gust of wind to a slowly deflating sail, it renewed her determination to make the girl feel pain, in any way she could. Just like she had to, imagining this little upstart with Dagger. She was young and pretty, and she’d crossed more than the bounds of the stables this day; Lam was determined to make her feel it to her core.
 
“But I pity you, for I doubt you are even aware just how sorry you will be… assuming people like you have the capacity for regret, of course,” she sneered, giving another degrading look-over.

[Erebus]

She was mystified by the explanation, and her face reflected that well enough.  Her eyebrows were drawn down and her lips twisted in confusion.  
 
"What?" She finally breathed, her voice a mere ghost of what it had been.  "People like me?"  Clearly, there was a misunderstanding.  All she\'d done was enter a stable without the proper permission.  Surely that didn\'t give the captain just cause to fling accusations her way and peer at her as if she was dung to be scraped off her boot.  
 
In the back of her mind, Keely was laughing.  She was dressed like a noble, with fine cloth carefully sewn to hug at her curves in a tasteful manner - completely unlike the dress she\'d met Dagger in, where it had crushed her assets and had her constantly looking down to make sure everything remained where it should.  Even scrubbed clean and dressed the finest stuff she\'d ever had, she was still being treated unjustly.  And it frustrated her.  Clearly, clothing wouldn\'t save her from everything.  
 
"I haven\'t done anything I regret," she hazarded, and was impressed that she hadn\'t wailed it out as she so dearly wanted to.

[Existentially Odd]

“Probably not yet, but I warn you; you will regret it. You’ll regret you ever took that first step, allowed that fancy dress to be made, let the gifts come your way. Most of all, you’ll regret saying yes when you should have kept your knees together and said no, because let me tell you,” Wilson warned, her voice growing embarrassingly loud in the bustling spaces of moving straw and snorting, neighing and nickering animals. She raised her right hand and pointed imperiously at Dagger’s little lolly-licker’s chest, “you will regret that most of all because it cannot be taken back!”

Without intending to, she’d delved into her own feelings and blasted them out at this girl, prodding her in the shoulder on the last word for emphasis. She could feel tears of rage building behind her eyes, her mouth set into a grimace as unheralded emotions rose to ambush her. It hurt to face down her successor and find herself lacking. The girl was undeserving of hatred, she knew it logically. The problem was, she didn’t quite know what to do with herself, but attacking was what she was good at, so it became the easiest course of action.

The stable boy felt it an unwise manoeuvre to exit the stall just then, so he remained where he was, watching with enormous eyes.

[Erebus]

Keely assumed this was how Walter had felt when he\'d been accused of stealing not one, but two bolts of silk from the local tailor. Even after having his person and home inspected, he\'d still been found guilty of a crime he hadn\'t commited. It\'d been far too easy to use a commoner as a scapegoat instead of looking into the situation a little further to discover the tailor had misplaced the precious fabric. Her friend had served a week in the dungeons before the error had been noted - and not even an apology had been tossed his way for the misunderstanding.
 
Walter had been at the wrong place at the wrong time, as the saying went, surely it was the same with her. It also explained why she felt like some of the hay that crunched under her feet as she stepped backward to avoid another action taken against her had been shoved into her mouth, making it dry and hard to talk.
 
Flabergasted and mystified, she found it very easy to retreat to the one emotion she knew best - anger. "Never," she hissed, "have I spread my legs to someone in exchange for... for anything! I am not a whore."
 
Hands clenching the skirts of the very item the captain assumed she\'d bartered herself off for, she found it very hard to contain the emotional reaction that would likely land her in a vast amount of trouble.
 
"I don\'t know why in Adora\'s name you figured I was, because I didn\'t offer to roll in the hay with that boy to see a damned horse, and I didn\'t need to bed anyone to get this dress. It was a gift, yes, but ugh!" Her face scrunched up in disgust. Her father had given her the dress, a place that wasn\'t rat-infested to live, but not once had it (or would it ever!) cross her mind to return the favors by sleeping with the man that had helped create her. "My father gave me this, you idiot! I don\'t think it\'s tradition to thank your da in that way, unless you were raised with a pack of dogs."

[Existentially Odd]

A very odd thing happened to Lam right then, and she went all tingly and lost focus as it happened; it felt very much as if her self split in two. While her mind seemed to lift and all of her consciousness honed in on a rapidly-drawn set of conclusions firing along all her alert synapses, her body acted of its own accord, driven by a more fundamental string of thought that didn\'t reach the surface of acknowledgement.

On the one hand, it occurred to her that the girl could well be talking about Dagger. In fact, the one time she’d seen them together he’d been ushering her into a tailor’s shop. But... her father? He was only a few years older than Lam herself, surely not a father to this young woman! Her eyes, though, looked very much like his. There was a certain shape to them, along with the grey colouring, that made it more than a possibility. Plus, there was the matter of her hair colour and her skin tone. There was a definite resemblance, but it was just so hard to believe that someone who would most certainly pass as a bed interest could be Dagger’s child. And where had she sprung from, anyway? True, Lam hadn’t spoken with Dagger in over a week, but was that really long enough to pick up a daughter? And why wouldn’t he tell her about it? Obviously she warranted even less consideration than she’d been feeling she did when she believed he was whoring around on her.
   
   And on the other hand… all she heard was the word ‘idiot’ and her hand shot out like a hare released from a trap. Her reflexes were obviously too well connected to the emotional base of her being, because she’d dealt the girl a relatively gentle slap (for her, anyway) before any of her other mental faculties had had time to notice what her body was doing.
   
   Accompanying the sharp crack of flesh on flesh was the captain’s angry insistence of, “I am not an idiot!”  Then she blinked at the girl, her separated halves coming together with sudden, sickening clarity.

[Erebus]

Keely, as occupied as she\'d been with staring dully at the captain after all her anger had been used up in one fell swoop, did not see the hand until her head was snapped sideways with the force of her open palm. If she\'d been attacked verbally, perhaps she would have been able to roll with what was thrown at her, but a physical attack left her shocked and rubbing at her cheek.
 
"You..." She laughed shortly then, though it sounded more like a dry cough than anything else. "No, not an idiot, but a brute." How amusing it was that almost the same thing had been said not even three days ago, but by a young noble girl with absurd views on the world. She\'d hit her because she couldn\'t deal with what was being said. Keely should have sympathized with the captain, but her views weren\'t skewed, so she would do no such thing.
 
"Can I leave now, or would you like to hit me again?" She asked, sullen now.

[Existentially Odd]

Ohhh, she’d got herself into some fine shit now. Dazedly, she stared at the victim of her jealousy, horror blossoming within as the innocent cheek before her got redder by the second. She couldn’t take her gaze off it for longer than it took to travel to the hurt expression in the grey eyes and back again. A brute? Yes, apparently, if what the girl claimed was true.

Wilson\'s mouth fell open and moved, but no words came out. She couldn’t think of the right ones, at that particular moment. ‘Oops’, just didn’t seem to cut it, and she wasn’t magnanimous enough to be able to contemplate ‘sorry’ yet, either.
   
   “I… I…” she floundered when her voice eventually found her again. That independent part of her mind marvelled at how truly ineloquent she could be when she’d really fouled something up. Her mouth closed abruptly and she cleared her throat, frowning. “What’s your name?” she demanded, ignoring the request for leave.

[Erebus]

Warily, she watched the captain\'s expression change into something very similar (in her mind, at least) to remorse, and judged it safe enough to take only three steps backward, instead of running out of the stables like she wanted.  
 
Though she didn\'t worry about being slapped around again, she didn\'t think it wise to voice her opinion on how it might have been wise to exchange names first, instead of at the tail-end of their conversation.  
 
"Keely Hawthorn," she mumbled, automatically, then remembered there had been a change of surname at the party.  "... Dagger," she amended lamely.  "At this point, you might be better off just calling me Keely," she admitted with a hesitant smile, "I\'m still not sure which last name to go by."

[Existentially Odd]

It felt as if someone had got a bucket of water from beneath the thick layer of ice on the frozen lake and dumped it in one fell swoop over her head.  Realisation gushed from head to toe, then further little rivulets of understanding continued to trickle across her mind, down her nape, over her face.  She went cold all at once, then red hot, gaping at the girl and feeling like a landed fish, fresh from that same stunningly cold water.
   
   Keely Hawthorn Dagger.  A new name for her, meaning she was a recent discovery.  How recently did Lady Keely Dagger, his daughter come about, then?  He will not be impressed with me.
   
   The final thought reverberated around more than any of the other dizzying ones, resounding and amplifying.  She really needed to fix this before it got any worse, though she couldn’t see any quick way to do it.  Confess?  She couldn’t exactly tell the girl the truth – oh well, sorry about that little display then, Keely, I was just jealous because I’m in love with your father and we have this sort of nothing relationship so I thought he’d left me for you and I wanted to make you pay but, no hard feelings, right? – just like that!  Lie?  It wasn’t her forthright style, but she could already see that it could be her only recourse.
   
   “Can we talk?” she barked, glancing warily at the staring stable boy, but didn’t wait for an answer.
   
   In one stride she’d covered the distance Keely had slyly managed to put between them and grasped the girl’s upper arm.  She steered her – firmly but not roughly – to the nearest place with a door that could close, the tack room in the southern corner.  There were a couple of stable girls in there polishing leather harnesses and laughing together but as soon as she asked them to leave – “Out!” – they scurried off and Lam was able to release Keely and close the door behind them.  Turning around again, she placed her papers on the bench beside her and composed herself with a deep breath ending in a rather rough exhalation, hands pressed gracefully to the abdomen of her shiny breastplate as she gathered her wits by glancing at the ceiling.  The trip had been fast, her thoughts faster; she knew what she was going to say now.  She looked Lady Dagger directly in the eye at last.
   
   “First of all, I need to tell you that I am Captain of the Guard Wilson,” she stated formally, bowing forward perfunctorily in respect.  “Second of all I need to apologise for using you.  I was not aiming to hurt you, but your father.  He annoys me, you see, constantly ordering around my guards, and when I saw you here today I thought I might try a little of his own medicine on him and order about his… erm, well you see I saw you with him the other day and I… assumed that… that you were…” her voice trailed off, the story that had been so smoothly firing out of her deflating to a gradual stop.  She bit her lower lip, blushing furiously and suddenly not able to say what she’d been happily implying just a short while earlier.  When she didn’t realise they were related.  A pack of dogs indeed!