Outside, the stables were already abuzz. The weather was warming, the days lengthening. It would be prime horse-selling season soon, and so Sorcha was hard at work preparing those intended for sale.
Maeve rarely paid much mind to the stable schedule, although this time of year usually meant the grooms were so busy, hardly anyone paid her any mind in return.
Such a shame. She could use an appreciative glance or flirtatious smile today.
Instead of a handsome groom, her eye caught on a flash of matted gold on the floor of the work area attached to the manor.
Veering toward the openair workshop, Maeve ducked to peer under one of the tables that made up the busy area. A forge and kiln had been built beneath the shelter of a pitched awning. The stables had a smithy already; this workshop was used mostly by her eldest brother Connor and now her brother-in-law Orek.
And speaking of Connor, it was his blonde head she’d seen poking between a few sacks. Leaning over the table, she met Connor’s eye as he rolled over onto his back, clearly having just woken up.
Maeve didn’t know whether to laugh or frown.
The brother she’d known had been the noble sort, the spitting image of their father in uniform. She was used to seeing him comport himself like the knight he was—back straight, boots pristine, hair shorn. The Connor blinking back at her hadn’t bathed in some time, hair and face matted with soot, and his old tunic loose and ratty. It was…embarrassing to see him like this.
None could quite explain the change in him, only that after a mission for Lady Aislinn had gone badly a few years back, he’d given up the duties of a knight, to their father’s dismay. Instead, he haunted his workshop, making…furniture.
Fates, what must the grooms think of him?Maeve bit back her cringe.
“I don’t know which smells worse—you or the horses.”
Connor huffed but didn’t look up. “Don’t be a brat.”
“I’m not. I’m being a concerned sister.” Leaning into the shade of the awning, she whispered, “If you don’t clean up, I’ll tell Sorcha and she’ll mother you straight into a bath.”
That earned her a scowl. Maeve nodded triumphantly.
Connor grumbled and heaved himself up. As Maeve waited, she spotted a few of the grooms admiring the view of her leaned over the table. Perking up, Maeve curled her lips in a sultry grin. Ah yes, this could still be fun.
A disgusted sound filled the workshop. “Can you do anything other than flirt?”
“Of course, brother,” she quipped without looking at him, “I’m quite accomplished. I’ve the qualification documents to prove it.”
Connor grunted dismissively. “Papers.”
Turning her smile on him, she corrected, “Important,expensivepapers.”
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Full of questions this morning. And yes, I do, but I thought it’d be nice to bid good morning to my darling older brother.”Fluttering her hand in a teasing wave, Maeve said, “Well, I’m off! Ta!”
Another snort followed her, but so did the admiring glances of more than a few grooms.
See? There’s nothing to worry about.Nothing at all.
“Maeve, might I have a word?”
Maeve looked up from where she’d been straightening out the desks. Usually the children were good about replacing them at the end of the day, but the weather had been so nice, all of them bouncing in their seats, she hadn’t had the heart to keep them there a moment longer.
Briseis stood just inside the threshold of Maeve’s classroom, the second of two. Briseis kept the larger of the rooms, where she taught the younger children. Maeve’s main duties were to oversee the older children—four in total, including Kiri.
Over the dragoness’s shoulder, Maeve spied a few vaguely familiar green faces. The pair of orc men blushed when they saw her looking at them.
“Of course. What can I do for you?”
Parents come to complain?Maeve stiffened her smile.
Waving the orcs—and to her surprise, a few harpies and even a manticore, although not Mister Soren—into the room, Briseis said, “There’s been a request for the school to hold evening classes for those who’d like to learn to read and write Eirean. I said I’d arrange it, but that was before I was elected, and my mayoral duties are in the evenings. So, I was wondering…?”
