[Envinyatar]

Derufin laughed at her use of the term, and standing, brushed the covering of sawdust from his shirtfront. ‘M’lord! Now there is a term not often applied to me.’ He squinted up at the sky, checking the position of the sun, and laughed again, ‘Or ever . . . now that I think on it.’

He stretched his tanned and muscled hands out in front of him, regarding them with some amusement, as he turned them back to front, noting the thickened skin on the palms and fingertips, the small scars where he had been cut. ‘These are no lord’s hands. Just the working hands of a farmer, a fisherman, and one who was once pressed into service as a warrior.’ His gaze dropped for a moment to the ground. And the hands of a man who has buried his comrades and his family. . .

‘But you m’lady,’ he said, the smile back on his face, ‘you have a love for the wood. It speaks to you, does it not? My skill is limited to making sturdy, useful things. Though of late I have tried my hand at the finer tools I found in the stable’s workshop. A small attempt at crafting a gift for a friend.’

He held out his hand to her and pulled her to her feet. ‘Cook will be wondering why her shelves aren’t up yet, since I’ve found me such a fine assistant. Come! We’ll carry them in to the kitchen and get them pegged in place. She’ll want to restock them herself. She has a system all her own.’ He laughed and shook his head at memories of his first days at the Inn when he had put things back willy-nilly and Cook, barely half his height, had scolded him soundly, shaking her cooking spoon for emphasis - impressing upon him the need to ‘pay attention’ next time, or there would be no more foraging in her domain.

‘Once we’re done, we’ll just clean up here. Then you can have the rest of the afternoon to yourself. I’ll put the horses and ponies in the fenced pen beneath the shade trees. And there’ll be naught to do after that until we take them to their stalls in the late evening.’

Derufin picked up the stacked shelving, indicating she should bring in the sack of pegs and the hammers whose heads were wrapped in thick leather . . .