He figured some lord's daughter could hardly intimidate him---even if her father was the Lord of Dumontsford. He was almost scandalized to see her skipping at such an age. All he had seen of her left him surprised she was doing such a childish thing. He had found out that the aristocracy did a lot of things that would get a normal person committed to an institute. What she was doing was hardly the strangest, but it was strange nevertheless. Only the God's knew what else the high and mighty did.
He knew one thing for sure, and it was if it ever got out that she had done such an unladylike thing (especially in front of a boy just barely qualified as castle help) then there would be a small scandal. Nobles loved scandals. If there weren't a scandal rest assured they would find something to be scandalized about. In his opinion, minor though it might be, skipping was an infantile thing to do at any age. He liked to think of himself as being fairly wise. After all he had just passed his fifteenth birthday little more than two months ago.
Recalling where he was, he lowered his head and resumed soaping and scrubbing the floor. There was considerable grousing on his part as he had no love of this kind of work. If luck were with him then she would hardly notice him. He had a knack for being ignored or being dismissed out of hand, and disappearing when the work got too demanding. The last part his friends and coworkers always leveled accusingly at him. They always railed at him about one thing or another. All of it out and out slander. It wasn't his fault that when he went wondering off people decided to up and work like crazy.
At first it looked like she was going to skip by him like he did not even exist, but at the last second she came to an abrupt stop to peer at him with curious eyes.
"Might I enquire as to what you are doing?" she asked. She gave him a dazzling smile that left him breathless momentarily. "And what is your name?"
He looked up at her and looked down quickly. He hoped she didn't see the foolish grin he had. It didn't surprise him one bit that she had such a lilting voice. It made him think of the birds that sang every spring in the grand apple orchards a few miles from the castle. He was also aware as never before of his station in life, and of the fact that his clothes where half soaked with the soapy water. If only he could learn to keep his mouth closed!
The girl arched one delicate eyebrow when he failed to say anything. It didn't take genius on his part to understand that she was not use to having someone lower than her making her have to wait for an answer. She glanced down the hall and gave him a sharp look.
"I won't bite," she said lightly. Smiling slightly, she brushed backwards her long reddish-brown locks. "You can trust me, child." Apparently she had seen the skeptical look he had tried to mask.
Inwardly he bristled at such a remark. He was no child! He didn't care who she was. She was not that much older than him to label him as such. Oh, it was hard to keep from replying and sounding impertinent. He thought being a noble was vastly overrated in that aspect. He had never understood why persons so called station in life was that important. No matter the number of times Mizreyn hammered it into him after each incident he just didn't understand it. Hopefully one day it would not matter. It was such a stupid thing.
He had to admit grudgingly that she was not acting snobby or putting on an act of disdainful contempt towards him. All the ladies seemed to have been born a bred to behave so. He would have bet that not a single one of them knew how silly and utterly stupid they looked. Usually the only time they bothered him-which was very rare, thank the Gods-was in such a way that he sometimes wondered if they thought he had the brains of a turnip, or some poorly trained dog. Fortunately being a servant meant one was practically nonexistent to the majority of them.
Excuse him if he had trouble making sense of their wants and needs. Truth be told, he didn't trust a single one of them. And now here was one noble acting rather friendly to him. The alarm bells rang very loud in his head. It more than likely meant she wanted something from him. That or she was possibly setting him up for something. He had heard how some of them liked to accuse for no reason. He thought it in his interest to err on the side of caution. He would pick and choose his words carefully. A strict middle ground was needed for this. He had seen her around the castle often these last few weeks and she had seemed reasonably nice for a noble, but.one could never tell with them. It paid to play it safe.
"Corden," he said, snapping out of his revelry when he saw the impatient look come to her face. "My lady," he added belatedly.
He could tell by her blank stare she didn't know who he was. For some reason that irritated him. He considered rising to his feet to make some kind of bow or another show of respect. Looking at his present soaked state he thought it a good idea not to do that. She would probably think he was being insolent if he stood at this point. From what Griffith said, insolent people didn't last very long. Besides he hated doing those stupid things. Come to think of it, he really didn't feel like moving more than needed, especially due to his wet clothes. Scrubbing floors since dawn did have the effect of making him rethink his priorities.
Soft laughter made him look up quickly. He flushed. Why was she so amused? What was funny? Did he have cobwebs in his hair again? He had never liked being laughed at.
"So," she said looking him over, "just Corden it will be." The smile she had made him feel breathless. She gave him a coy look. "I suppose that you know who I am?"
Corden held back a frown. That was obvious. Who didn't know whom her entire family was? What kind of question was that? Only an idiot wouldn't know who she was. Her father was one of the most powerful men in the empire. He had seen the man walking the gardens time and again surrounded by servants and followers, sending them on his errands constantly. He hated pulling weeds! It was hard keeping quiet on some subjects. Would it be in his interest to plead ignorance? After all, he didn't know what she was up to. Zel, without a doubt, would tell him to do just that. Zel did have a low opinion of his "betters". He sighed. Today didn't seem to be a good day to stretch the truth over such a trivial matter.
"Well, my lady," he began before faltering. "Um.you are-Can I say "you"? You're Lady Gelisa. May the Gods watch over your blessed soul." He congratulated himself on remembering that fluff from the Head Mistress.
"Covering as many paths as possible?" she asked teasingly. Shaking her head ever so slightly she came closer to him. "You just remember that I was never here." She bent down and patted his shoulder and winked at him. Without a backwards glance she was off in a whirl down the hall.
Corden watched her go. Did he just dream that she had touched him? Oh, the fellows would never believe if he told them. He inhaled her perfume and tried to wipe the ear-to-ear grin he had away. Without a doubt this moment was so good that things would be certain to go down hill from here.
Turning back to the task of scrubbing the floor took some effort. He wondered why he had to do all of it. What he did hadn't been that bad. Besides this big get together that was suppose to happen wouldn't include a floor stones inspection in a part of the castle rarely traveled. He was missing an entire free day over nothing. Some people could be so thin- skinned. Least it had been made slightly pleasant. He found himself smiling and humming to himself. He could stay here for a while and daydream. It wouldn't be like anyone else would come along. He liked that idea.
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