4.1.1

"Shhh..."
She put a finger to her lips and fixed him with caramel brown eyes, a smile more than playing on her lips. Kelton just looked at her in shock. What was a village girl doing in the stables?
Seven in the morning. His day had already well begun, and he had just finished cleaning the cows' stables. This girl, whomever she was, had come just as he was leaving and ducked around the wall into the first stall and behind Kass, the fattest, best cow on the farm.
"What're you-" he started, in a whisper, but she cut him off.
"SSSHHHH!"
Kelton stared at her another minute, but he could hear someone coming along the road and faced away from her, obligingly, as a soldier reached the front of the stables and fixed him with a glare.
"Stable hand!" the soldier snarled, "a girl just ran through here, where did she go?!"
His voice was rough, and grated Kelton the wrong way. "Why would a girl a' run in here? This here's the cows stables. There nothing but cows round here." He put on an expression similar as he could to Seamus, a man who lived near the fountain that was a few straws short of a bale of hay.
Giving him a look of utter contempt, the soldier took off in the direction that he had been riding - past the stables and towards the outland woods.
Kelton watched him go for a moment, to make sure that the soldier wasn't coming back, then turned to the girl.
"Can you talk now?"
She nodded and stood up, steadying herself on the cow (who paid her no mind), "yes yes," her orange brown curly hair bobbing up and down as she did. "Why did you not turn me in?'
"The favor wasn't for you," Kelton said, "he was an ass. I would have sent him that way no matter who was hiding in my stable."
"Even Sir Hamstrein?" she asked, grimacing.
"Oh yes, definitely Sir Hamstrein." Kelton nodded, vigorously, "because of course I'd love to have the chance to kill him myself."
She laughed gave him a combination of curtsey and bow, "Excellent answer, sir. I commend you."
He nodded, turning and brushing the bits of hay off of his clothes. "So to whom am I apparently sharing a stable with at this moment, may I ask?"
"The name's Celia, and who must you be?" she looked at Kelton expectantly.
Kelton's face fell into a glower, and turned to a pile of stable tools near the gate, "that's really not important now, miss Celia," he pulled a thin, slightly rusty sword up from the pile and pointed it straight across at her, "what's important now is; what the hell do you think you're doing in my stables?"
Not skipping a beat, Celia's smile turned sick and twisted, "you're smarter than you look, Stable Boy."