Rabbit (Episode 1 - The Further Chronicles of a Young Lady (and her Maid)

The story so far:  Ok, here goes!  I wrote The Chronicles of a Young Lady (and her Maid) as a serial, here on ABCTales, as a way of getting through the dark days of the Covid pandemic.  Given that we're back in dark days, albeit currently without a pandemic (but watch this space!) I thought this would be a good time to revisit Aefelthrith and Gwladys and pick up where we left them.  You can find the full story here but, in summary, and using the book's blurb, this is what happened:
When a young noble lady's betrothed rode off to battle, she had high hopes of his triumphant return, unlike her Maid who expected him to last five minutes! To save themselves from a fate worse than death, the Young Lady and her Maid ran for their lives (amongst other things) and so started a set of comic adventures involving a lascivious watchman, a flamboyant sea captain, a vindictive Sergeant at Arms, a Parson and a couple of bailiffs.  
At the end of the last episode, 'Ethel'and Gwladys ran away from a life of servitude at the Inn, run by her former Lord along with his partner (and their baby), to take their chances on the road (much to Gwladys's chagrin), which is where we find them, right now:

The ramshackle fire, in the midst of the clearing, spat and sparkled in the night sky.  An owl hooted, optimistically, but there was no answering call.  Beside the fire, a young woman sat with her head in her hands.  From time to time, she poked the fire savagely, sending a spiral of sparks into the air.
An older, thicker-set, woman appeared in the clearing, swinging something from one hand as she whistled, tunelessly.
Without looking up, the young woman said:
“I have been thinking”
“I thought I could ‘ear a grindin’ noise” The older woman chuckled.
“What?”  The young woman looked up from her study of the fire to glare at her companion.
“Nothin’” The older woman shrugged, “Bunny for yer!” She threw the rabbit she had been carrying, so that it landed, with a thud, at the feet of her younger companion.
“Ew!” The younger woman jumped back and looked at the delivery with horror, “And what do you expect me to do with that?”
“Needs guttin’, then we can roast it on the fire” The older woman sat down, heavily, beside her.
“Gutting?”
“Yeah, yer know, get all the innards out and stuff”
“I will not be doing that!”  The younger woman shook her head, violently.
“Not gonna eat then, are yer?” The older woman shrugged, brushing dirt off her hands.
“How did you catch it, anyway?” The younger woman asked, deftly changing the subject.
“Slingshot!” The older woman looked particularly pleased with herself, “Ain’t done it since I were a lass.  Used to be pretty ‘andy in me younger days, could beat all the lads”
“Where did you get a slingshot from?”
“Just a bit of old material I found” The older woman said, dismissively, twirling a grubby piece of off-white material in one hand.
“That looks suspiciously like the lace from my undergarments”
“Does it?” The older woman asked, innocently.
“Yes, it does!”
“Oh, don’t get yer knickers in a twist, Ethel!” The older woman snapped.
“And that, Gwladys, is one of the things I have been thinking about” ‘Ethel’ replied, “my name, as you well know, is Aefelfrith, not Ethel”
“Yeah, but it’s a bit of a mouthful that, innit?” Gwladys pointed out.
“Needless to say, it is my given name and it behoves us to use it” Aefelthrith said, sniffily.
“But Ethel…” Gwladys began.
“Ethel,” Aefelthrith said, firmly, “was entirely appropriate when we were scrubbing floors and living from hand to mouth. ‘Aefelthrith’, on the other hand, does NOT scrub floors!”
“What does she do then?” Gwladys picked up the deceased rabbit and made a start at skinning it.
“She has people to do it for her” Aefelthrith said, airily.
“Does she now?  To do what?”
“Everything!”
“You ain’t ‘alf got some airs and graces!” Gwladys sniggered.
“Yes, I have, and that is precisely my point!” Aefelthrith glared at her, “I’m not cut out for being a scrubber”
“Hmph!” Gwladys stifled a titter.
“I am NOT!” Aefelthrith stamped a foot, causing smoke and sparks to billow and furl.
“Yeah, well, whatever yer say, missy” Gwladys shrugged and threw the rabbit skin to one side.
“And that is what I have been thinking about.  You see, I think we have been approaching our situation in entirely the wrong manner…”
“Wasn’t aware WE were doing anything!  Seems to be mostly ME!”  Gwladys grumbled, getting busy with a knife on the rabbit.
“You see, we have been doing things your way…” Aefelthrith began, ignoring Gwladys’s complaints.
“Well, yeah. ‘cause the alternative was starvin’ in a gutter” Gwladys pointed out, reasonably, as she tied a few sticks together to create a makeshift spit.
“But, you see, it condemned us to making a life at the very bottom of the social ladder” Aefelthrith went on.
“It’s where I come from” Gwladys shrugged, “an’ it gave us three square meals a day and a roof over our ‘eads”
“Agreed, but do you not think that there could be another way forward?” Aefelthrith looked at Gwladys pleadingly,  “One which does not involve scrubbing and sweeping and scrimping and saving?”
“We’re back to starvin’ in the gutter again, are we?  Is that it?”  Gwaldys expertly pinned the rabbit onto her spit and began the task of roasting it.
“Not at all!” Aefelthrith stamped her neat little foot, again, causing the fire to roar and threaten to engulf their rabbit.  “My Lor…Clar…John Thomas, he did not starve, did he, but did you see him digging ditches or sweeping the streets?  I think not!”  She glared at Gwladys, who ignored her and busied herself rotating the rabbit.
“Mebbe” Gwladys conceded, eventually,“but ‘e still ‘ad to make a run for it, afore them what ‘e owed money to caught up with ‘im, didn’t ‘e? An’ ‘e stole a coach and ‘orses while ‘e were at it”
“This coach and horses, to be precise” Aefelthrith nodded toward their conveyance.  “But, that is beside the point!  The thing is, as he said, if you are believed to be rich and powerful, no-one expects you to pay for anything…well, not there and then, anyway.  So, you can lead a life of luxury and comfort…”
“Until the punters twig on and come bayin’ fer yer blood” Gwladys continued turning the rabbit on the spit.
“I do not see why it has to be that way” Aefelthrith sniffed, “Given time, operating at the right level of society, I think it should be entirely possible to accrue some small reserve of wealth”
“’Ow?”
“Buying and selling, investing, brokering deals, that sort of thing” Aefelthrith said, airily.
“’Ow yer gonna do that then, when we ain’t got two farthings to rub together?”
“There’s the coach and horses, and I still have some jewellery”
“The coach an’ ‘orses is nicked, twice over, if yer remember?” Gwladys frowned,  “As fer yer jewellery, good luck explainin’ where that came from!”
“But, as I said, you don’t need money…”
“I ain’t trickin’ no-one, an’ that’s final.”  Gwladys slapped a hand down on her lap.  “There’s stuff yer ‘ave to do to get by and there’s stuff yer don’t.  Once yer start theivin’ an’ lyin’ to keep yer ‘ead above water, that’s when yer a short ‘op from the gibbet, you mark my words”
“Are you saying that my betroth…my ex-betrothed, deserves to hang?”
“Not up to me” Gwladys folded her arms, shrugged and stared intently at the fire, “all I’ll say is, ‘e’s been sailin’ close to the wind an’ no mistake.  If they were to ‘ang ‘im, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised”
“But…he is a gentleman, a member of the nobility!” Aefelthrith protested.
“An’ ‘e’s cheated an’ ‘e’s lied an’ ‘e’s thieved.  If ‘e’d been some poor sod off the streets, ‘e’d ‘ave ‘ad ‘is ‘ead parted from ‘is shoulders long since”
“I think you have a poor understanding of the world that a gentleman inhabits” Aefelthrith sniffed.
“I reckon I knows it a sight better’n you” Gwladys said sternly, “Are yer ‘avin’ some of this rabbit, or what?”  Gwladys was carving some of the meat off with her knife.
“Erm, plates?  Cutlery?” Aefelthrith looked around her, expectantly.
“Don’t be so soft!” Gwladys cackled, “’Ang on” She got up and started thrashing around in the undergrowth behind them.  “’Ere!” She threw a large leaf onto Aefelthrith’s knee.
“And what is this?” Aefelthrith looked at the leaf with disgust.
“Plate, innit?  Bonus is, yer dunner ‘ave to wash it up, after” Gwladys grinned.
“And cutlery?”
“Fingers came first” Gwladys scooped up a handful of rabbit and began eating with obvious relish.
“You see, this is just the sort of thing from which we should be moving away” Aefelthrith said, with distaste.
Gwladys sighed and cut another chunk of meat.
“Look, lovey” She began, “When yer strips off all the airs an’ graces, an’ the fine clothes an’ stuff, what yer left with is what most on us ‘ave, which is two arms an’ two legs an’ all the stuff in between.  An’, mind, there’s them what’d ‘ave no trouble takin’ even that away from yer, if yer gave ‘em ‘alf a chance.  But, when yer ain’t got nothin’ else, like now, an’ like at the start, when me an’ you were runnin’ away from that castle, that’s when yer ‘ave to use what yer’ve got, yer body an’ yer mind, to get what yer need to survive.  Like I got yer food when we were ‘oled up in that cave, didn’t I? An’ like this rabbit, what’s gonna feed us now.  Same as when we were in that town on the coast an’ we turned our ‘ands to cleanin’ an’ skivvyin’ ‘cause all that took was a bit of effort an’ ‘ard work.  An’ we earned an ‘onest bob, we ate well an’ we ‘ad a roof over our ‘eads…”
“Yes, but…”  Aefelthrith began.
“Ne’er yer mind, ‘yes, but’” Gwladys snapped, “That’s what it boils down to.  Yer might think that them Lords and Ladies, they’re different somehow, but they ain’t.  Yer get what yer need, either by ‘ard work…or by theivin’ off them what did work ‘ard for theirs, there ain’t nowt in between.  Yer use what God gave yer to survive.  Owt else is a bonus, d’yer see?  Now, are yer ‘avin’ some of this rabbit, or what?”
“Yes, please, Gwladys” A chastened Aefelthrith said, meekly, holding out her leaf.
“Good lass” Gwladys said, patting Aefelthrith's knee and carving a chunk of roast rabbit, “get that inside yer an’ I might find some berries for afters”

You can find The Chronicles of a Young Lady (and her Maid) in both Kindle and paperback formats.