A Little Pinch of Magic

Blue eyes bore through the small hole in the door of the servants’ quarters as a brunette girl went to work on making the off white sheets stretched over a flat mattress look decent rather than bunched together ready to pop off the ends. The servants’ quarters were dimly lit, musky smelling and colder than standing around the ice fridge in the kitchens. Everything was wet, and more than once the blond hair servant had found mold growing on the legs of the small, broken chair in his room. Being stuck in the quarters wasn’t usually something the blond found fun, he sneezed whenever he was down there, and he was sure the next rain storm they had he was going to wake up with mold growing on his arms and legs. The Styles family didn’t care much about their servants, only the ones that held any job of importance, like Ella, the brunette girl fixing his bed sheets.

Ella had been born in the castle, though far from the pleasant rich background she’d hope to inherit when she grew up. Her mother, a previous maid to the Queen, had had the girl in the very quarters she slept in now. Her mother’s presence long had gone now as she passed away shortly after having the brunette ball of energy. The different between Ella and the blond boy, more commonly known as Niall, was that Ella was given her position solely on her mother’s personality and friendship with the Queen. The brunette girl had been delivered by the Kings men just like the Queen’s own children were. The girls’ mother was treated with care, and after her death the Queen buried her in their own burial plot, kicking out her mother in law. Ella for all intense and purposes was royal.

Niall on the other hand was sold to the King, in trade for his parents’ freedom of taxes on their small piece of farm land. He was part of a trade leaving him to do the worst work around the castle, usually stuck with cleaning out the loos and making sure the floors where spotless and shined in the light. It was hard work for him; he was scrawny and could barely bring all the needed supplies up with him. The blonde was more prone to accident than a toddler learning to walk, and he was positive it was only a matter of time before he was hung for disrespecting the Queen. He was well behaved most of the time, not wanting to receive another humiliation from the King and Queen again. However, the older maidens tended to his wounds and checked on him every morning, noon and night before doing their own house duties.

“Niall would you please sit down? No one is going to reprimand you for having me make your bed; you sliced your hand open.” Ella sighed as she pulled the scratchy brown blanket over the newly stretched sheets. “Besides, when have you ever seen the King and Queen down here? They always send Sir Zayn and we all know how much he has a soft spot for you.” She giggled quietly, making her way over to the blond hunched near the door.

“Doesn’t mean he doesn’t tell them, he just doesn’t make me go with him to tell them.” The blonde sighed, pulling away from the door, his free hand now rubbing at the cloth covering his left. It was blood stained and dirty, he was sure that his hand was going to get infected if he didn’t get it cleaned soon.

“I’ll clean a new piece of cloth for you today when I do the Princesses laundry. Get that old thing off you, yeah?” She asked, taking his left hand in hers, running his fingers gently across the cloth, careful not to irritate the wound any more than it would be later. “I’ll try and sneak some of that salve too. Might help to soothe that cut.”

The blond shook his head furiously. “No! You can’t, that’s for the Royals. If they caught you sneaking that away who knows what they might do to you!” Niall didn’t want to know what would happen to his best friend if something like that happened. Ella was the only person to keep him sane while he was stuck here, and if she left, then there really wasn’t anything he needed to stay for.

Ella just chuckled running her fingers through the ends of her long brunette hair. “If they catch me I’ll sell my hair to get buy.” She smiled her big, white smile, before leaving the room. “Besides, the Princess won’t mind.” She called down the hall, leaving Niall alone in his small little room, with the one window that barely did anything to light his space.

Being a servant wasn’t all bad. He was able to eat the left overs of the Royals’ dinner, he had a nice group of people to check on him, and he was able to watch the Princess whenever he was allowed to work anywhere other than the hallways. Cecilia, the youngest child of the Styles family, was a beautiful girl with bright green eyes and long flowing honey colored hair, she was the most beautiful thing Niall had ever set his sights on. He would listen to her laugh as he was outside working, watch as he made her way through the gardens smelling each and every flower, even if they were the same. Though he was often reminded it’d never happen, that he was nothing more than the poor boy cleaning her house. If he was honest he didn’t ever think he’d have a chance to marry. The Styles family owned him.

The sound of footsteps brought him from his dazed thoughts of the young Princess, his hands frantically moving to his sides to fix his shirt. His room was spotless as he looked over it before running over to the door, flinging it open and stepping outside. His blue eyes met chocolate brown ones as he smelled the familiar stench of the cigars that Sir Malik smoked outside the castle. It was the surprisingly a smell he didn’t mind smelling, he wouldn’t do it himself, but the smell was oddly calming.

“I was just on my way upstairs, Sir.” Niall mumbled, his eyes meeting the others, only to receive a small smile and the wave of a hand. The breath the blond was holding left his airway a sigh of relief escaping his lips. “Thank you, Sir.”

“Zayn.” Sir Malik, responded as he stepped aside, letting the blond leave his doorway. “When we’re down here its Zayn.”

Niall smiled, a nod of his head before running down the hallway dodging everyone in his way. It wasn’t like being late would really do much other than anger the people he was cleaning with; it was rare that the King and Queen were even around the castle. Usually it was just Sir Milk and Sir Tomlinson that roamed the castle, making sure the servants were working correctly. Even then, neither of them did much of anything Sir Malik let them work freely nor Sir Tomlinson was ordered to make sure Prince Harry didn’t leave the castle unannounced or alone.

Lucky for him, today was his short day, meaning that after his morning job, he didn’t have to do anything again until before dinner time in the castle. This meant he could do whatever he wanted for the rest of the day, which usually consisted of sitting aside and taking in the sun he rarely got to see. Sometimes he’d make his way into town offering to get bread and meats for the overworked women in the kitchen. It gave him the freedom to walk around with people just like him. Though it never lasted long, because he was running errands and as much as he just wanted to run off he had nowhere to go.

The thing with Niall Horan was he never did anything he wasn’t supposed to be doing. Ever since he was a child he was always following the rules, and if that meant he had to return to the castle during his free time then he did. But today was different; he was working with some of the older servants cleaning the windows in the foyer, which meant he wasn’t going to have as much free time as he wanted. Though he knew there wasn’t much he could be doing right at the moment anyway. It was still early leaving the grass fresh with dew drops and the sun low in the sky.

Cleaning the windows were one of the things Niall hated about his job. The windows were far too large for his small frame to clean; he wasn’t the strongest person in the world, and he certainly wasn’t the most careful either. Usually when he was left to clean windows, he made more of a mess than he did cleaning up the ones already made. Water and cleaner would slosh around in the heavy buckets, and the droplets of the mixture would fall on the floor and them as he tried to get the tops of the windows. Usually he gave up and ran water breaks, because the other people he worked with didn’t want to clean up more than they had too. The blond didn’t really mind, it let him sit around and think of what his life would have been like if he was still at home. Then he realized his parents sold him here and he doesn’t really want to go home anymore.

“Aye! Horan, get up and go! If you sit around there you’re only get to get chewed out.” Paul one of the older servants yelled at him from where he was playing with the threads on his shirt. The blond bolted up, nodding his head at the older man before carefully walking back through the hallways. It was something he got used to quickly, being told to leave, normally he’s spill something or hurt himself. It’s how he got the cut on his hand – not paying enough attention in the kitchen awhile he was helping. Eleanor had said it was normal, that it was nothing to worry about, it happened to everyone once or twice in their life. He had nodded and left to patch up his wound.

There were only a few things that really got to the blond servant boy and it was usually when he could see the disappointment in someone’s eyes. It wasn’t that he lived to please, he just hated seeing it from the Royals, it always meant that someone was going to get in trouble. It was usually him, he was an easy target, always looking around, wringing his hands together, and to them he was weak. Normally people would have a problem with this, it was usually Paul, if Paul wasn’t around, no one stuck up for him; it was better him than them. At least that’s what he thought they were thinking; either that or they just really didn’t like him like he thought that did.

“Niall! Come here, now, it’s important.” The voice of his best friend Ella rang through the hallway, right to his ears causing him to stop right in his tracks. Turning around he saw his best friend skipping down the hall, one hand holding her dress and the other hand holding something else. “Here, this is for you.” Ella smiled as she stopped right in front of him, handing him a small container. “The Salve I promised you.”

“I can’t take this! If someone see’s it they’re going to think I stole it.” He said shaking his head, handing her back the small container, though all she did was laugh and shake her head. “It’s not funny. I always get blamed for things anyway, this’ll just give them all another reason for it.”
“Don’t worry about it, Niall. The Princess gave it to me; she saw your hand yesterday.” She smiled, pushing his hand back into his chest. “And this too.” Her small hands handed him a new, clean, strip of cloth – though he could tell this one was much different. It wasn’t scratchy like the one he had on, it was softly and silky. By the look of it, it looked expensive, like it was taken from the inside of one of the Princesses dressed. “She said to make sure you put that on twice a day and make sure it stays clean.”

“Did you steal this?!” He asked shrieking. “There is no way you could have gotten this for a servant. Once King Styles sees this he’s going to send me off to live outside! I’m going to live outside if I use this.” He said, shaking his head again. If there was one other thing Niall hated, it was sleeping in the cold, it was bad enough he was stuck in the sticky, musty smelling room.

“I didn’t steal it.” Ella laughed softly. Niall never really realized how loud her laugh was until it was echoing off the walls of the hallway. It wasn’t even a bad loud, it was good, the kind that could always bring you from your darkest places. She really was like a saint. “The Princess gave it to me, said that you should have something soft against the cut instead of that scratchy fabric. She also said to give you this.” She smiled, before leaning forward and kissing his pale cheek. “Get better.”
He was in a state of shock. Ella was playing tricks on him, and normally he’d be angry at her, but he just needed it right now. He was already scared enough his hand was going to need to be removed and he really was thankful for the Salve and the clean cloth. So whether or not Ella was telling the truth or not would have to not be important, because he had other things to worry about now. “Thank you.”

With that Ella was off, and Niall was left to his own thoughts again.

He took the small container and clean cloth, shoving them into his pockets as he made his way back down to the safety of his room. The rest of the castle smelt of chicken or turkey he wasn’t really sure, all he knew was that it smelt good as he made his way past the kitchen. “I’ll bring some down to you after lunch, Niall. Need to get some met on those bones.” Eleanor called out to him as he smiled and waved at her.

Eleanor was always kind to him, she was only a few years his senior, but she looked out for him like the mother he wished he had. She was always bringing him left over food and drink, bringing him extra water and even juice on some mornings to make sure he was hydrated. “Thank you, El. Means a lot and it smells awfully good.”

The brunette women pulled him into the kitchen, sitting him down on one of the chairs near a wooden table. Quickly, she went to work on undoing the cloth on his hand, before shaking her head at him. “Niall you need to keep this cleaned up or I’m going to have to chop that hand off.” Her long legs were already bringing her over to a pot filled for water, a dish towel going into it before being wrung out. “Come on now, I’ll clean it out for you.”

Reaching into his pocket, Niall pulled out the clean cloth and small container of salve he was just given, setting it on the table next to him, his hand help out to her. “You really don’t have to. I’ll get it.” But as soon as he held out his hand Eleanor was cleaning at the dried blood. “I think Ella stole these from upstairs. She said the Princess gave them to her, and to tell me to get better. I think she’s lying.” There was a small smile on Eleanor face as he told her, his head tilting to the side. “What, what is it?”

“Princess Cecilia is a Saint, that’s what.” She smiled, setting the wet cloth down and blowing on his hand to dry the water stains. The salve was sticky on his hands as she spread the medicine on the wound letting it sit for a few moments. “I don’t think Ella was lying to you. Just the other day the Princess gave me these old flats of hers, she noticed how torn mine were. Don’t sell her short, she’s not anything like her mother.” With that she took the new, clean, silky cloth and wrapped it around his hand, holding it in place with a safety pin from her apron. “Good as new.”

“Thank you, El.” Niall smiled, standing from chair he was seated in. It was defiantly turkey for lunch. “Do you think you could hold on to the salve for me? You know how they’re always thinking I’m at fault, if they found that they’d think I stole it.”

Eleanor smiled, and took the small container sliding into one of the many pockets on her skirt, before walking back over a bigger pot stirring the contents. “Now go get some rest before lunch ends. I’ll make sure to bring your some. I can try and get you some juice too.” She smiled, shooing him out of the room. “Oh and Niall?” The blond looked over his shoulder as he left the door making his way back to the hallway. “Do make sure to dirty that up a bit. The cloth. Tis a bit to white.” She said with a sad smile watching the Niall nodded his head and left the kitchen.