Since that first battle, the Lady's first battle as commander of the Volley's forces, Gwyneth had struggled with how to address the Lady. Gwyneth had been the goose girl, when Malle was just a girl. They might have been the same age, but Gwyneth had to work as soon as she could walk.
Malle came from 'fine folk'. Her childhood was full of play, until the time she must learn to be a lady. Gwyneth had the care of her family's flock of geese. There were six children and Gwyneth was the youngest. Her mother was at an age where more babies were unlikely. Honestly, her father was relieved.
The family was not in danger of starvation or losing the roof over their heads, but all had to do their part for them to survive. Her father was a small-statured man but vigorous. He had a good reputation as an honest and dependable worker and was often hired by the fine folk as a day laborer, for harvest time, planting time, wood cutting, and the like.
Her mother made simple jewelry with the silver the fine folk would provide. She was also trusted as one who 'the silver did not stick to her fingers.' The other children also hired out to do tasks all over the Valley, the eldest at some distance. Rosalie was the maid to a farm wife at the far end of the Valley near the East Range of Mountains. She had her own room, a clothing allowance and ample food. Gwyneth's 7 mother joked that Rosalie was the only one of her offspring who was likely to get fat!
In due course, when Gwyneth was no longer a girl, after her father and mother had died, this was what she knew of her siblings. Rosalie grew fat on a farm near the mountains; the other four, had typical lives for Valley poor folk. One daughter Elise, died during childbirth before marriage. The next oldest, Sancta, started working for the Holy Ground, and eventually she was allowed entry into the Guild of the Keepers of the Holy Ground. One son, Bruno, joined the Guards; he died of dysentery after only six weeks in the Wild Lands. The surviving son, Albert, lived with his wife near the estate of the Lady. He had shunned Gwyneth when she took up the life of a camp follower of the guards.
Gwyneth had grown tired of being the 'goose girl'. Typically, it was not something a female continued with past the time of her bleeding, and Gwyneth had passed that time by many seasons. She had followed Bruno into the Wild Lands, eventually nursing him when he fell ill until he died. Afterwards, she stayed with the Guards, loving the rough camaraderie of these mostly simple men.
With her rough upbringing and growing up with brothers, she brooked no nonsense from the men. It helped that she was a burly lass, and that a stout punch from her right arm might not floor a man, but it would give him pause and cause him to reconsider how this former goose girl should be treated.
She made herself useful in the guards, as a laundress and a better-than-average cook. Her skills with the needle and thread were not outstanding, but bested what the average guardsman could carry out.
The outdoor life suited her, but the guards sojourn in the Wild Lands would not continue through the winter. In the winter barracks, she secured a permanent position as 'Mistress of the Barracks', a supervisor of all domestic life, at a military post. Reporting to her were the cooks, scullery maids, farriers, and tailors.
