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She’d never felt as comforted by anyone as Gwaine at actually done. Romily hadn’t meant for him to see her like that, but she couldn’t help it. She managed to control herself as he kissed her hands, seemly being ever so gentle with her. As though she were that delicate. She was anything but that, but by the look that she saw in Gwaine’s eyes, she could see what he was thinking. She felt a little relief in her mind that he was classing himself as a friend. She never had any friends – well not before she came to The Ram, but she couldn’t even class the villagers as friends because she hardly knew them.
“A friend eh?” she smiled. “Well, that makes one”. A small laugh escaped her lips. This Gwaine was very different to the one she’d experienced the night before – for a start he was not only being a gentleman, but he was also rather interested in what she had to say. No man would devote a certain amount of time in his day to listen to a woman drone on about how hard her life was. Romily, somehow felt a slight connection between the two of them, but she really couldn’t explain how or why.

The wind had picked up by now, and the rain was falling so hard that marks were being left in the mud. The flash of lightning followed by a roll of thunder made her jump. Romily had never been one for storms, especially being out in them. A horse reared up in response to the madness that was going on outside, galloping out of the stables.
Gwaine was up in a flash and out of there, calling that they should help the horse. Horses were faster than actual running, how on earth was she meant to catch one? A wild horse chase was not exactly her ideal morning, especially in such dramatic weather, but never the less she followed him out and into the rain that soaked her to the bone almost immediately.

Gwaine was already ahead of her, the horse a little way in front. Romily hitched up her dress and followed, running as fast as she could and trying not to slip in the mud. “Gwaine! Gwaine it’s not worth it!” she was sure he couldn’t hear her, “Gwaine! Just leave it! The horse is bound to turn up later!” As much as she loved them, there was no way that they would catch it. “I think we should turn back!” she yelled, pushing her hair away that was now sticking to her face.

She stopped and watched him, trying to catch her breath back. “Gwaine! We’re soaked! If we don’t get back inside and in the warm, we’ll catch a fever or something!”

No reply yet. Then again her voice was being carried away by the wind.

With that she huffed and started running after Gwaine and the horse again, wondering how ridiculous the pair of them both looked at this moment.

She heard footsteps and the splashing of puddles approaching the stables. It certainly wasn’t Eldon, he couldn’t even move that fast. She wasn’t the least surprised to find Gwaine standing there as she turned around.
He’d told her he wasn’t married. A part of her felt some sense of relief whereas another screamed out that it wouldn’t benefit her in the slightest.

“That mound of hay looks like a comfortable place to sleep. Go on, you need it. I'll keep watch,” he told her.

Romily snorted that this “Really Gwaine, im not an invalid – I don’t need rest, im perfectly fine” she insisted and moved one of the saddles to hang it up. The stable boy was late again today so the other stable hand was busily working and looking as though he was trying not to overhear the conversation.
Eventually he left the pair, nodding at Romily as he went.

“I’ve already told Eldon that I am demanding your services whether you like it or not. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be bothering you for the rest of the morning.”

“You did what!” she almost jumped up from her spot, “Gwaine” she half groaned, “You do realise that when you leave Eldon will most likely have my head on a silver platter – he doesn’t take any kind of nonsense from anyone? What did you do to make him not bother me?” she asked, not wanting to be met with a dreaded answer. For all she knew Gwaine could’ve had a sword to Eldon’s throat, he could’ve even tied him to a chair!

She was busy watching Gwaine talk to Leonie about the weather and fussing over her.
Romily remembered her horse back at home. Fira. She’d been a birthday gift from her father when she was ten years old. It was probably the only valuable thing that he’d ever given her. She had no idea why; Durwin had never paid her any attention in all her twenty years, not even the day she was born.
Fira had always been Romily’s favourite horse out of the five that they had. She would always escape to the stables there when she was feeling angry or upset.

It was then Gwaine mentioned his mother and how Leonie was named after her. She’d also died several years ago. Romily could only identify with that. At least Gwaine had got to spend many years with her. Romily had only had three.
“Im sorry to hear that – it’s a beautiful name though” she smiled, “What about your father? Do you see him at all?” she asked and the looked at the floor. “Sorry, look at me bombarding you with all these questions – there’s work to be done”.

Romily gave a small chuckle at Gwaine’s description of what his drunken nights were usually about. It seemed as though he had many women after him by the sound of it. Then again – if he were anything with them like he was with her then it was obvious. She couldn’t help but wonder if he had a wife waiting for him at home, for all she knew he could be married and yet be having affairs all over the place. She had to find out now.
“I suppose your wife doesn’t like the idea of you spending evenings in the tavern with many women” she smirked, “then again I wouldn’t blame her”. If he was married then a slap was coming his way.

She looked up, a little shocked that he’d told her she needed fattening up. “Im not a big eater” she confessed. Her father had always commented saying that he didn’t want her rolling around Wolfhall when there were guests. “I never have been – my father used to comment all the time about it, about how I should be of a woman’s simple stature for her height” she rolled her eyes. “Anyway this is the first breakfast I’ve actually eaten in…well I really can’t remember,” she admitted, picking the bread to pieces on her plate. She really didn’t feel like eating at the moment, all she wanted to do was sleep some more. “And with regards to working and breaks – this place is basically run by me whilst Eldon sits around and his daughter makes her way around the village like a leech” she rolled her eyes.
Eldon’s daughter was hardly ever at the tavern, and even when she was she was never doing any real work. “If I want to prove myself – then I need to show Eldon that I can work hard – and that means not taking advantage of my duties”.

Duties? Pah! It almost sounded as though she were being ruled by her father again. Romily had always taken orders from everyone, never taking any of her own. Now it seemed as though she’d have to take Gwaine’s, as he was demanding that she come and help him feed his horse.

“Leonie?” she smiled, “a very good name for a horse – names after anyone in particular?” she asked, “Horses usually are where im from”. It was then she spotted Eldon watching her like a hawk from the bar; brows raised and ready to question.

“If you’ll excuse me Gwaine” she got up and headed over to where Eldon was now folding his arms

“You should be serving Millie, not flirting with every man on sight,” he told her

“Im just taking my orders from the customer – after all, the customer is always right”

Eldon rolled his eyes, “and you always say that you are bound to serve and obey any of them that ask anything of you” he shook his head, “Really Millie, you believe that they are actually grateful for some barmaid flouncing around them? They most likely think that you’re after something, like more pay”

Romily swallowed, “If you must know, I do it out of kindness, which is more than I can say about your daughter”

“Watch your tongue girl” Eldon growled, “or you’ll be out by your ear” he grabbed her wrist, “Just remember who gave you shelter and a job when you were most in need…don’t spoil it” he hissed and dropped her arm.

“You did” she sighed, “I promise not to disobey you anymore Eldon” this was a line that had somehow been robotically drummed into her.

“See that you don’t – now get back to work”

Romily picked up a pail of leftover fruit and vegetables and headed outside to the stables. She’d rather feed Leonie for Gwaine now – to show Eldon that she wasn’t just lying down on the job. Sometimes the man could be as sweet as pie, but on days like this he could be just as angered and foreceful as her father was.
She ran a hand through her hair as the horse nibbled at the apple she’d given it. Her back pressed against the wall, she felt her head gently connect with it as she leant it against the stone and sighed.

It was times like this that she wanted to be Lady Romily of Wolfhall again. Not Millie the barmaid.

He kissed her hand as he caught it again. She smiled and looked away – she preferred this version of Gwaine to the drunken one last night.

“I slept quite soundly in fact, thank you, but I’m not so sure exactly how I got myself into a bedroom when last thing I remembered was talking to you down here,”

Romily smirked at this, pleased to see he was paying the price for last night. “Well I helped you upstairs – you tried to bed me, fell over – oh and I almost lost my job when you started yelling about whether it was time to take your pants off” she rolled her eyes. “Needless to say that you were quite drunk”.

She poured him a drink and served another customer as he spoke to her. She almost dropped the tankard that she was holding when he asked her to have breakfast with him.
She had no idea whether this was a good sign. For a start Eldon wouldn’t be happy if she was once again sitting down on the job – then again he seemed to rise at midday and an hour later return upstairs. Surely he wouldn’t mind if she sat down for five minutes.
Romily hadn’t had time to eat that morning. Breakfast wasn’t part of her daily intake when there was so much to do.

In the end she looked at him – his hand was still clutching hers. It was almost as though if she let go then he’d slowly fade away. “Alright” she nodded, “But I can’t be long – I’ve already taken enough advantage of my job as it is – last night I could have been dismissed trying to hide you in one of the rooms”.
Romily knew she couldn’t be mad at him for that – after all it wasn’t his fault that he’d happened to have a love of ale and for her so it seemed. Besides, he would most likely be leaving soon and what harm could be done in just sitting and chatting?

She handed another drink to him. “Here – that will take the pain away from your head” she told him gently, “I’ll come over with food in a few minutes, let me just see to these guests and then hopefully, I should be able to take a break”. She slowly slipped her hand out of his grasp and headed into the kitchens to get the breakfast that the other guests had ordered.

She could hear Gwaine calling out for her, and now she could hear footsteps on the stairs before Eldon appeared.

“Romily! What on earth is going on! Why is there some man yelling to take his pants off at the top of his voice!” He growled.

She knew it. Gwaine would certainly be the death of her if Eldon found out she’d allowed him to stay the night in such a condition. Eldon was now waiting impatiently for her answer. “Well? Answer me girl or I’ll have you out of here as far as you can say ale!”

Romily swallowed and looked at Eldon with a blank expression. “Everything is fine, that man in question is just a traveller – he suffers from sleep talking you see. He mentioned this to me when I was showing him to the room and asked me to apologise if we or anyone else should be disturbed”

A small ‘hmmm’ escaped Eldon’s throat. “That still doesn’t answer my question as to why he wants to take his pants off”.

“One can never know what goes on inside a mans dreams, or his head for that matter” she replied. “If I’d have known he would have been this bad then I would have asked him to find shelter elsewhere.”

At this Eldon’s expression softened. “No, no – we have a business to run – we can’t lose customers just because some bloke has…” he lowered his voice, “inappropriate dreams”.
Romily chuckled slightly, “I suppose not – now get yourself back off to bed, I was just finishing cleaning.”

“Goodnight Millie – and see to it that this gentleman, although im not exactly sure if he deserves that title, is alright.”

Great. That would mean having to check up on Gwaine who had now taken the hint and had stopped calling out for her. She hoped he was asleep.
Once Eldon had gone back to bed she went up to find that Gwaine had thankfully passed out. She put down the bowl of water, that she’d brought up with her, and watched for a moment – it could just be some kind of game. At any moment he could open his eyes and pull her onto him.

Still no movement. He was most defiantly asleep. It was then she noticed a bruise to his head – a result of falling over earlier no doubt. She took the cloth from the bowl of water and wrung it out, folding it and placing it over his injury. It would look much better by morning.
She headed out the door looking back at him one last time and then leaving him for the evening.

Romily returned to her room and changed into her nightgown, she felt weakened by all that had gone on today, and found herself slip easily into sleep.

She heard the footsteps drawing nearer as she worked hard to clean the bar. Romily quickly wiped her eyes and regained what little composure that she had left. On hearing Yassia’s voice ask if what was wrong she turned and smiled calmly at her friend.

“It’s alright, really im fine”

She didn’t want to go on about her life than Yassia wanted to hear about it. Besides it wasn’t as though Yassia would be staying here for much longer – if she were to have started living in the village then perhaps Romily would have found it even more easier to confide in her than she had done already. Yassia already had problems of her own and Romily wasn’t prepared to load of hers onto her as well. She couldn’t help but contemplate her thoughts of what it would be like if she returned home now. She was sure her father wouldn’t like it at all, but she felt so tempted as for him to see her now that she was almost willing herself to walk straight out of the job and back to Carmelide.

“Was there something you wanted?” she asked, “Is it too cold in the room?” she was worried now. She doubted that Yassia would complain given the fact she’d already stated spending her nights in a far less delightful environment, but Romily couldn’t help but ask. She was a barmaid; this was her job – to make sure that all her customers were looked after.
Romily found herself scrubbing at the bar far harder than she’d anticipated, it wasn’t even dirty, she’d already cleaned it at least one hundred times that evening. With that she set the cloth down and waited to hear what Yassia had to say.



OOC – so sorry it’s taken a while to post, Millie hasn’t been as talkative as she usually is!

He was drunk, very, very drunk and Romily could see that.

“Ahhh…if I don’t know any better, you don’t want to get rid of me just yet. But I’m sorry my beautiful lady, I have to go home…unless it is your room that is free upstairs,”

Now he was blabbering on about how he hoped it was her room that was free. The typical ramblings of a drunken man in her eyes. “You cannot go home in this state, you wouldn’t even make it to the door” she told him sternly. She couldn’t just let him go off into the night without any clue of where he was heading.

He handed her some money. He’d given her enough to buy a whole alehouse than just to pay for his meal. Either that or he was a very rich ‘bandit’. There was no way that he was a bandit. He was a nobleman – she knew that and so did he, especially as he’d just given her a small fortune in itself.

She looked on in amusement as he rose from the chair but ended up trying not to fall over.
“Gwaine, you can’t even stand!” she rolled her eyes, as he muttered, “That’s not good,” to himself. Ok he certainly had to stay at the inn. He was now on the floor!

Romily slapped her palm against her forehead and couldn’t help but laugh. “Come on, get up. I’ll show you to your room and be quiet! If Eldon sees me im in for it! So no singing or loudness of any kind ok?” She helped him up and practically dragged him along and up the stairs, making sure that she pushed him up so as if he were to fall, then he’d land on her and not at the bottom. It was a good job Eldon wasn’t here to see this, he usually had some kind of rule about drunks staying for the evening – but seeing as he wasn’t around and was snoring away in the bedroom down the hallway, Romily couldn’t care less whether he came out and saw them.

She took her keys and unlocked one of the rooms, practically pushing Gwaine into the room, anyone who would have been watching this may have instantly got the wrong idea as Romily stuck her head out of the door, looked around to make sure no one had seen and then closed it behind her before Gwaine could make his escape. She turned to him, her back still against the door and blocking all means of exit – except for the window. Hopefully he wouldn’t decide to jump out of it.

She looked at him and rolled her eyes again “Now get some sleep – you’ll feel like you’ve died a thousand times over in the morning, but I suppose it’s better than waking up in a ditch with no horse and belongings to your name”.

Romily was more surprised at herself. She would have never shared the truth about Jaxon’s existence with anyone. “No – I don’t want to either, I doubt that he knows about everything given his age, he’s still quite young”. Ok not as young but a revelation like that would ruin his life. “If, however he did then im sure he’d jump at the chance of being the rightful heir to Wolfhall Manor – that puts me out of the picture entirely.”
No matter how hard she tried, it was hard to like Jaxon. She’d never even met him but as soon as Bonnie had given his name to her she disliked him instantly. She couldn’t help but think that he’d most likely inherited her – sorry, their father’s traits. “I’ve painted a picture of him in my head. He’s every inch of my father, but there’s another side that makes me think he’s kind hearted and innocent. I suppose maybe one day our paths will cross”.

Yassia explained about the type of men she met on her travels. They all sounded the same to Romily, and Yassia didn’t hold back in voicing this. Romily laughed, “One thing – yes it seems as though most men care only for that and that alone. They don’t check to see if they’ve hurt out feelings.” She smiled at Yassia. “I truly believe that after all you’ve been through –you deserve someone who will give you anything you want. And of course he won’t be smarmy!” she chuckled.

Romily watched as the princess glided into the room and looked around with hopefully a look of approval. Thankfully this was confirmed when she told her that it was perfect.
“Im glad you like it. Eldon likes any traveller to feel welcome and thankfully there are no lice and fleas of any sort, I ensure that all of the beds are rid of them before the complaints come rushing in” Romily smiled and walked into adjust a few things in the room – such as fluffing pillows and whatnot. “Well earned rest I think not – I spend half of the evening tending to the travellers that have something to complain about. The shutters letting the cold air in, the pillows being too hard, even the bed being in the wrong place!” she tutted, “You won’t be disturbing me at all. If ever you do want to talk though, just come and give a knock on my door – I’ll either be there or down in the bar” she told her, said goodnight and left Yassia to settle.

Back down in the bar she began working hard to clear up. The locals were gone, travellers in their rooms and the inn locked up. All was quiet except for the silent sobbing that came from lonely barmaid trying not to break.

It was just Romily, herself and time.

“I have very high respect for women. Moreso with women who can defend themselves and who don’t need men to fight for them. Although that makes me feel a tad bit useless when I’m with her, it feels good to know she will not die when I’m not there to defend her.”

Strong words indeed. Romily couldn’t help but feel as though Gwaine had meant them for her. No, he couldn’t have – they’d only just met and she was sure that lots of women had heard it all before. Plus, she wasn’t about to become big headed.
He kept looking at her though, well, her hair mainly – it was as though he almost knew who she really was. “I take it you have a liking to my hair” she laughed, “I inherited it from my mother”. Romily winced slightly. It had been a while since she’d thought of her mother, or even mentioned her so casually like that. She felt a little ashamed; it was as though she’d turned her back on her memory.

She was then shocked when Gwaine offered to teach her how to use a sword. She shook her head though. “Thank you for the offer, but after tonight I don’t think any of the locals will cross my path again after I yelled at them. They’ve never seen me like that before so I suppose they’ll be a little more wary from now on”

He sat himself across from her, and asked if she could keep a secret. “Some people confide in me – im not a gossip,” she told him in earnest. Gwaine then came out with how he’d stolen the clothes and was a bandit? No. That wasn’t right. Surely if he was a bandit he would have involved himself in the fight earlier. He was looking around to see if anyone was listening in, but everyone was keeping a low profile now after the earlier events of the day.
She gasped slightly as he grabbed her hands and then told her he had a sword pointed to her under the table and that he’d like some more ale.

Romily took a deep breath and leant in, her lips almost touching his. “No bandit would offer to teach a mere barmaid how to use a sword” she smirked and rose from her chair. “I’ll get you your ale, then perhaps you would care to tell me why I should really believe that you are who you say you are.” She told him and went to get some more ale, looking back at him with a little mischievous smile. Gwaine obviously liked to impress a lady. Ok, she was no lady but in general it seemed that way.
She returned to the table with the tankards and placed them in front of him.

“Now, are you going to run me through? Rob the tavern of its money? Take me hostage? Or does a certain ‘bandit’ have more interesting things to do with his time?” She took her seat across from him again, looking around and noticing that some of the locals were now leaving to make their way home. They still bid her a cheery farewell thankfully. Her eyes found Gwaine’s again, she knew that this was going to be a long evening.