Chapter 11: Promotion

As if that incident were a precursor of things to come, things started to go wrong.

First was the weather. The autumn had been good thus far, the air warm with just a hint of coolness at night. The morning after Jubilee had been beaten, she woke to a stiff, aching body, cold air in the barracks, and frost on the ground. She ran for the privies, her breath forming silvery clouds in the chilly air, and changed as quickly as she could. She was still shivering as she ran for the dining hall with the other boys; and the heat from the great fireplace in the hall was a welcome respite from the cold in the trainees' barracks.

She looked for Logan, as she always did, as soon as she got seated. His accustomed seat was empty, and she was almost halfway through her meal before he came in. He didn't give her his usual wink and head for his seat; instead he stopped at her table. "Ya did a good job with the tack, kid," he said to her, the twinkle in his eye softening his usual gruffness. "Here. Thought ya might get a little cold out there in the mornin's, an' I know ya don't got a coat." He handed her a leather jerkin lined with sheep's fleece. She took it, amazed at his thoughtfulness, and smiled up at him in gratitude. Her smile lit up her face in a way she wasn't aware of, and Logan felt a peculiar wrenching in his heart. He smiled one last time and hurried to his seat at the knights' table.

Sir Francis met her in the hallway exiting the dining hall, and she saw the shocked look on his face as he saw the bruises. "Has the Healer seen them bruises, trainee?" he asked her.

Jubilee dropped her eyes. "They're just bruises, Squiremaster," she said, trying to make light of it all. Actually, she was finding it hard to move; her side ached abominably, and her loins were still on fire from the hard kick of the day before. Riding today was going to be extremely uncomfortable; and what was worse, Nathan would see her stiffness and know it was from his beating the night before. But she couldn't go to the castle healer for a pain-easing brew; the healer would want to look her over completely, and her secret would be discovered. When she'd chosen to disguise herself as a boy, she hadn't expected anything like this to happen, although, looking back, she could see that she should have expected it.

Sir Francis looked shrewdly at the little boy in front of him. The lad was in more pain than he was letting on; he could tell by the set of the shoulders, the slightly-hunched position, the stiff walk. Still, he couldn't force the lad to see the healer, and he also knew that if it were serious, Logan would have sent the boy to the healer himself. Logan was one of the more considerate knights in court; he didn't treat his squires like they were personal servants, people who were there only for his convenience. Francis remembered the previous winter, when Collan had taken ill with the coughing sickness; Logan had cared for himself and the squire for a week while the boy lay ill in Logan's own room. "As you say, then," he sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "I need to talk to you. Your teachers say you're acquainted with the lessons in writing and reading and figuring; and I saw the tack you cleaned for Logan. You know pretty much everything you need to know about being a squire, and taking care of Sir Logan. The Horsemaster says you're well advanced in the riding lessons; you've even got tricks he says he's never seen before. You're only showing problems with the weaponry lessons, and those only requiring use of a sword. Which is to be expected, of course; you're not grown into your full strength. The Armsmaster tells me you're accurate with a moving target at a hundred paces and more with your archery. In everything but swordwork, you're well suited to an advancement, even as young as you are. What say you to an early promotion as squire?"

Jubilee's mouth fell open, and she stared at the Squiremaster with wide eyes. "Really?"

Francis smiled at the look of artless surprise in the lad's eyes. "Really. Normally we'd wait until the end of the winter, but Sir Logan's going to be one of the ones going out on the battlefield with the King in spring, and he needs to have a fully-trained squire ready by then. I normally wouldn't advocate sending a lad as young as you out there, but, well, desperate times call for desperate measures."

"An early promotion…" Lee looked positively ecstatic. "I'd love that. What do I have to do?"

"Well, we're going to move you to the squires' quarters; the same one Logan's old squire had, as a matter of fact, since that's the only room open." Funny how that turned out. Francis only hoped that Logan's guess about the room being unhealthy in itself because of its placement in the outer wall by the castle moat was wrong. When Collan had fallen ill the previous winter Logan had claimed it was because of the vapors arising from the stagnant water in the castle moat, and had Collan moved to his own room. The healer had said it might be possible, but Francis had never heard anything of the like. Still, no one else had wanted the room afterward, but Francis was betting that the lad in front of him would be only too happy to take what was offered.

He was right. Jubilee was elated. Her own room! Even if it was just a tiny cupboard she would have been happy. She'd never had a space all to herself. Her parents' wagon had been divided into two sleeping rooms; one for her father, and one for her and her mother. She'd always shared space with someone, all her life. Now, to get her own room… "When should I move in?"

Francis grinned. "Here's how this is going to work. You'll still be attending your History class and your regular weaponry class, but after weaponry you'll be in the field with the squires, which includes your friend Robert. Their horsemanship classes include how to properly dress and care for the horses, how to ride carrying weapons, standards, and the suchlike; how to arrange your pack and your knight's pack; how to pitch your knight's tent, care for his gear (you won't have problems there, I saw that tack you cleaned!) polish and sharpen his weapons, and all that. That's going to take you till lunch; you won't have that free hour anymore, unfortunately. Then the noon meal, and afterward you'll be on the training field with Sir Logan. While he's training with the other knights, you'll be watching. After he's done, it'll be time for you to show what you've learned about caring for his things, his horse, and his needs. You'll have to learn how to field-dress his wounds, because a healer can't be everywhere at once; you'll have to learn how to distinguish between emergencies and non-emergencies; you'll have to learn how to dress wounds using the barest minimum of items. That'll take you through mid-afternoon. You have a free period then, before supper; that could be spent in your own pursuits, or doing any small chores Sir Logan might ask you to do; then supper, and you can do what you like after that till you're tired and you want to be in bed. Oh, and you'll be sitting at the squires' table from now on. And those plain brown clothes will be changed to the colours of your King and your Knight. Sir Logan's colors are blue and yellow; you'll have a tunic and leggings of blue, and a yellow cloak with the red and gold device of the King on the back. You'll also have the red and gold badge on the chest of the tunic."

Jubilee went off to her History class wearing a dazed look; the teacher had been informed that henceforth this lad would be wearing blue, and so permitted the lad a little woolgathering. He didn't call Lee quite as often that day. After History, Jubilee went out to the field, where the Horsemaster singled her out in front of all the others and praised her, then informed the others that Lee had been given an early promotion to squire. The other trainees cheered, and in the rush of happy congratulations, Jubilee failed to notice the sudden, malicious glint in Nathan and Stephen's eyes.

After weaponry class, Jubilee met Sir Francis in the trainees' quarters, clearing her things out of the chest. She was thankful that she had thought to stuff the cloths for her monthlies down into the scabbard of the sword; the sword had been a little short for the scabbard, which left a bit of space in the bottom. Sir Francis handed the sword off to her, and she carried that as she followed him down the corridors to the squires' rooms. He finally opened the door to a small, dusty room equipped with a small bed and chest exactly like the one she'd had in the trainee's quarters; but in the corner was another chest, slightly larger. Jubilee puzzled over the thing until Francis explained that she might be required to store some of Logan's things in here if his quarters got too crowded, and that was what the other chest was for. She nodded.

He replaced her brown clothing with blue and yellow tunics and leggings; she used the excuse that she needed to use the privies to slip off and change. The clothes were a little too large, but when she came back, Francis mentioned rather casually that since she was expected to repair any of Sir Logan's clothing if it got torn, she would find needle and thread in the second chest. Jubilee looked, and saw the hanks of dark-blue thread, and was delighted; she could fix her own clothes. She longed to be able to take them in until they were as formfitting as the catsuits she had performed her acrobatics in, but since that wasn't possible…at least she could bring the hems up on the leggings. Then she shrugged on the jerkin that Logan had given her, and hurried out to the squires' field.

And here the reaction, in contrast with her earlier cheering from her training mates, was cold. The other squires were much taller and older than she appeared to be; they were all about seventeen or eighteen, and a year away from becoming knights themselves. She felt very small and young among them, and even Francis's cheerful pat on the back and assurances that 'You'll do fine' failed to lift her spirits. And as soon as he left her, things started to go wrong. The instructor, while not outwardly cold, also didn't make her feel welcome. And things started happening almost immediately.

She was shown to the stall where her own and Logan's horses would be stabled, next to each other; and his blanket seemed to have mysteriously gotten lost. By the time another student 'found' it, it had holes in it that the student attributed to mice but that Jubilee was certain had been caused by scissors. Then a frayed girth strap on the saddle she had only yesterday cleaned and ascertained was sound gave way, and she was told she would have to stitch a new strap that night and have it ready for the next day. His standard, a heavy banner that mingled his blue and yellow colors with the red and gold of the King's personal ensign, also had holes chewed in it apparently by mice, although Jubilee suspected that the mice had opposable thumbs and metal teeth. She was just wondering if any of the others had known she was going to be promoted and had deliberately made trouble for her, when she saw Roger, Nathan's friend, smiling smugly at her from where he sat on the fence. Jubilee's heart sank. Roger and Stephen and Nathan's fathers had enough clout, and money, to buy their boys into the squires' training program; they would follow her here and make her time miserable. She set her teeth. If she had to she would keep all of Logan's things in her room, in the spare chest, to keep them from damaging things too much. Logan would be extremely unhappy.

The faults with his gear went on all morning. The instructor couldn't fault her dressing of the horse; at least she, unlike Roger, didn't try and put the bridle on the horse upside down. He gave her a brusque set of instructions on how to caparison the horse, then left her to do it. Some of the trappings were different from the things that her parents had used, but the underlying harness was the same, and Logan's horse, sniffing her scent, decided that he still remembered her enough to allow her to dress him. By the time the instructor called time on the lesson, Logan's horse was more or less ready.

The squires were told to undress the horses and put them away, then they were free to attend the noon meal. After the noon meal they were to report back to the same field and meet their knight here, and tack the horses back up for the knights' afternoon practice. Jubilee considered hurrying off to the dining hall, then changed her mind. Logan's backup saddle wasn't clean, and was stiff with old sweat. She grabbed another girth strap and whip stitched it together, then sewed it on the saddle she'd cleaned the day before. Oiling it until it was as supple as new leather could be, she set it aside and commenced stitching the holes in Logan's saddle blanket and standard. She was still hard at it when the other squires came racing back in from the noon meal and started tacking up the horses for the knights' incipient arrival.

Finally the knights arrived, and Jubilee's heart leaped as she saw the blue and yellow figure come striding onto the field. He went to his horse's stall, and as he checked the straps and made sure everything was on the way it was supposed to be on, he said to her, "Missed ya at dinner, kid."

"I was in here mending some things," she said. "Your standard and the saddle blanket had holes in it. They said it was mice."

Logan frowned. "When I left 'em yesterday they was alright. Francis said he was goin' to promote ya, so I made sure everything was gonna be in workin' order fer ya today so ya wouldn't have anything major ta do."

Jubilee shrugged and stared at the stable floor. "Mice can do a lot of damage in one night." She didn't want to tell him about her suspicions, that Roger was sabotaging Logan's things. She might just be imagining things.

Logan hmmphed, sounding unconvinced, but mounted his horse and rode out to the field.

Jubilee watched in awe as he went through his training with the other knights. They started out with group maneuvers, wheeling their horses left, right, then marching them in a phalanx before breaking into two 'teams' to simulate a battle. Her heart was in her mouth as Logan and another knight in green and red clashed in the middle of the field. The swordplay looked furious, but it was only mock battle, and when Logan 'scored' (touched the other knight with the tip of his practice sword) the match was called off, with Logan declared the winner. Another pair took the field, and then another pair. Jubilee realized what was happening when Logan rode out again, sword at the ready; half of the knights there were eliminated, and the others would have to fight each other until only one was left, the 'winner' of the day. Logan scored every time, finding ways to get under his opponents guard and get a hit, until he and another knight, one in black and yellow, were the only ones left on the field.

Logan was surprised. He hadn't been this close to being the 'winner' for a long time. His black responded to the lightest touch of the rein, the gentlest tug; the suppleness of the leathers really did make a difference in how the horse handled. He'd heard that particular legend before, but had never really put much store in it; now he realized it was true.

Julian, the knight he was facing, noticed too. "Hey. You finally got that old stiff stuff you have replaced? Your horse's responding better."

Logan grinned wolfishly at Julian. "Nope. Got myself a good squire. He worked wonders with the leathers."

Julian grinned. "Wonder if he can work wonders with something harder?"

Logan's good humour vanished. How dare… "He ain't yers," Logan growled. "Go find yerself yer own squire."

"Oh, well! Touchy, aren't you?" Julian looked at Lee, who was carefully polishing Logan's regular sword during the lull between battles. "On the other hand, seeing the way he looks, I can't blame ya. Was it you who messed up that pretty little face? Didn't know you had it in you."

Logan ground his teeth and forced himself to remain calm. Getting angry wouldn't help this situation any. "He got in a fight, Julian. Like all boys."

"Must have been one hell of a fight. Is the boy limping a little?" Logan took a quick look over at the sidelines, trying to see if Lee was limping; and was taken totally by surprise when Julian charged him. He got his shield up just in time to deflect the blow. "Maybe he's not limping from the fight. Maybe he's limping because you finally started using him?"

Logan lost his temper. That had hit a little further below the belt than he'd expected from a man he considered a friend. He charged Julian with a yell, and in the clash that followed, he only managed to deflect Julian's blows with luck. When they finally separated after the first round, he slumped on a bench to one side of the field, and Lee came out to him holding out a cloth for him to wipe his brow with. "Julian's tricky," the boy observed.

Logan bit back a growl. "No, he's not. I lost my temper. Did some stupid stuff."

Lee frowned. "But you're not supposed to…"

"I know, I know," Logan growled testily. "But he said…he implied…that you and I…" He made a gesture with his hands. It was a rude one, but it was the only thing he could think of, because he couldn't say the ugly words aloud.

Lee pressed his lips together, and said nothing for a minute. Logan was surprised, then astonished when Lee said, "Let him say what he wants to say."

"But…"

"We both know it's not true," Lee said. "So why worry? They can say what they like; only an idiot would believe that about you. You're so…honourable. You'd never do that. I'd never agree to it. Besides," Lee said, his voice dropping, "If they think we're…maybe they'll leave me alone."

Logan leaned across the bench and seized Lee's arm. "Anybody been harassin' ya? Been askin' ya ta do stuff ya ain't comfortable with? Tell me, an' I'll call insult on 'em…"

"No!" Lee pulled his arm out of Logan's grasp. "No, no one's approached me yet, but…"

"But what?"

"I see them looking…not just the knights, but some of the squires too…I'm only a trainee…"

"Yer not 'only a trainee'," Logan snarled. "Yer my squire. Ya tell 'em I said so. They can't have ya. If any of 'em approach ya, tell me. I don't care if ya gotta wake me up in the middle of the night ta do it, ya let me know!"

"Hey, Logan, you coming?" Julian called from the field.

Logan ignored him, keeping his grip on Lee's arm until the boy said finally, "Yes. I'll let you know." As Logan rode back out to the middle of the field, anger swirled in his mind. No one was going to touch the boy. Not if he had anything to do with it. His hot temper had cooled to a slow, cold rage, and he made several moves calculated to make Julian think he was still angry. When Julian rode at him again, thinking he was going to make the same stupid move, Logan got under his guard and scored. He rode off the field, the 'winner' of the day, but a look at Lee sitting on the benches at the end of the field made the victory taste like ashes. The boy wasn't happy. And that made Logan upset.