"Shhhh!"
I lunged at the silver-haired boy, frantically looking over my shoulder to make sure none of the other servants were close enough to hear.
Since my eyes weren't on my target, I overestimated the Young Master's height, and instead of grabbing his mouth (which, I should add, is definitely not an appropriate thing to do to your employer), my hand thumped on the top of his head and sent the both of us tumbling into the straw.
"You-!"
The Young Master began to sit up, his eyes daggers. This was the correct moment for me to apologize and beg for forgiveness.
But I think we all know that's not what I did.
The maids' giggly voices were getting louder. They must have finished their laundry and were heading back to the manor. And the path led right past the entrance of the stables. I knew if they heard commotion, of course they'd come peek inside, and see me having just tackled the Young Master.
Gossip would spread like wildfire. The impact on my reputation and employment would be devastating.
(One can only expect such brilliant awareness from a true scandal-making prodigy.)
But anyway, with the threat of my future wellbeing on the line, I didn't think twice before wrapping my arm around the Young Master's neck in a sort of headlock, firmly clamping my palm over his pouty lips, and shoving him back down into the hay.
Not even two seconds later, the shuffle of feet sounded outside the door.
"Huh. I thought I heard something, but I guess it was just the horses."
"Horses are living creatures, you know. They don't just stand there like statues all day!"
"Maybe someone is having a secret rendezvous in the straw!"
"In broad daylight?! That's bold!"
"Whatever it is, we'd better leave them to it."
The voices melted into a bunch of giggles and then faded away altogether as the maids moved on.
My instincts to hide had been spot on.
"Phew," I breathed a sigh of relief as I released the Young Master. "That could have been bad."
"... fired."
"Hmm?" I looked over at the Young Master, who was laying in the straw with an arm flung over his eyes. "What was that, Young Master?"
"I said-" his voice got louder as he sat up beside me, his eyes locked with mine, "YOU'RE FIRED!! GET OUT!"
"Eh?!" I raised my eyebrows. "You can't fire me!"
"Yes I can! I can do anything I want! This is my house!" he shouted, his cheeks reddening. I'd never seen him act like such a child before. He always seemed so aloof and indifferent, but here he was throwing a tantrum like a proper ten-year-old boy.
"No, you can't. I need this job because unlike a spoiled brat like you, I have nowhere else to go!" I shouted back.
"You should have thought of that before you attacked me!" he spat. "I've never been so humiliated in my life."
"Humiliated??" I clenched my fists. "You think this is humiliating??"
In that moment, I don't know what came over me. Probably the rage that had been continuously building up inside me ever since my parents and home were taken unfairly from me.
But something in me snapped. I reached out and grabbed a particularly ripe pile of horse dung, lifted it up, and smashed it into the boy's face.
"Well what about now? You've got poop all over your face! Isn't that the most humiliating thing that's ever happened to you?!" I growled, rubbing the stinky substance across his nose. "You know what's worse than that? Everyone looking down on you because you don't have a home or parents! Begging for money on the streets to feed yourself! Then not even being able to see your only sister! And after all that, having to spend all day with these stinky horses just to stay alive! Go ahead and fire me!! I don't care!!!"
With that, I jumped up and ran out of the stables, straight to the nearby stream.
Honestly, at that point, I was prepared to get fired. Mentally prepared, that is. Physically, I had no backup plans. No ideas of what to do next. But my mind was a mess of fury and pain, and I was ready to pack up and run from the Wulfstan Estate.
As I crouched there by the bubbling water, swirling my hands in it, the Young Master came and crouched beside me. In silence, he scrubbed his face clean and then sat back in the grass.
"It's pretty humiliating having to pretend to be a boy so you don't get sold off to some dirty old man, huh?"
I gasped and whipped my head around. "How did you know that?"
He hugged his knees into his chest, peering at me over the top. "Just guessed, mostly. It was easy to figure out you were a girl, and then I pretty much pieced together the rest."
I turned my gaze back to my hands in the water. "Go ahead and laugh at me. Or tell everyone the truth. Or just have your parents fire me and get it over with."
I hung my head in despair, waiting for his response. This was it. After all of Mari's sacrifice and hard work, I had ruined everything. "I'm sorry, Mari," I whispered under my breath.
"I won't."
"What?"
"I won't laugh at you. I won't tell anyone. And I won't have you fired." The Young Master stood up, extending a hand to me. "I've got a better idea."
His 'better idea' turned out to be having me transferred from the stables to be his personal servant. From then on, I woke him up in the morning, followed him to all his lessons, managed his schedule, and cared for him whenever he was feeling ill.
We formed a friendship—a real friendship—and I began learning a great deal about nobility and society.
By the time I turned eighteen, I had conjured up a genius plan to reclaim my old identity as a woman while still maintaining the freedoms of being a man, and the beautiful silver-haired boy had grown into a beautiful gigantic manchild who couldn't seem to do anything without me.
"What are you thinking about over there with that big grin on your face?"
The said manchild interrupted my reminiscing as he propped himself up on the green sofa opposite me in my parlor.
"Oh, just recalling that time I rubbed horse poop in your face," I smirked.