Scotland! pt 3

[likeroaringlions]

William's initial thought had been to avoid Douglas Castle, considering his company: how do you smuggle a Harry Percy around? But after their rough-interrupted night, and a morning that reveals a Parsnip favoring one of his forelegs, and after a glimpse of the dear familiar black Douglas Water, he'd found himself suggesting it as their destination. "We can put up at the inn in the village. Get a proper meal there, anyway. I guess no one's likely to think too much of my not staying at the castle. There's no one there right now anyway, just an old cousin or two."

Comments

[harryhotspur]

"If thou think'st it best," Harry agrees. He's not too worried about being known for an Englishman, much less a Percy: he can just let William do the talking. And even if he is overheard, they're getting close enough to the border than his very northern accent wouldn't be such a shock.

[likeroaringlions]

"Aye--and it's no such a bad inn, anyway. The decent one, I mean." There's also an indecent inn. But they won't be going there. "They'll be able to get us fresh horses and something hot to eat. --Here, let's go." Abruptly he urges on his horse, taking the righthand fork in their road. "We'll be there in half an hour."

[harryhotspur]

"And these, these are all Douglas lands?" Harry asks after a moment or two, once he's sped up to match William's pace.

[likeroaringlions]

William laughs. "Listen to the man! We've been on Douglas land since we crossed the Clyde, haven't we?"

...This may sound a lot like boasting. Which Hotspur will no doubt be shocked to hear from a Douglas.

[harryhotspur]

"And how was I to know it the Clyde?" Harry asks, a touch irritated that he didn't know that. "Had it great letters floating before it, as on a map?"

[likeroaringlions]

"I said it was the Clyde! Do you just hear a lot of Scottish noises coming out my mouth when I talk, instead of words?" He's laughing: evidently not bothered in the slightest. Oh, English people. "That great river was the Clyde, and now we're alang the Douglas Water. Dubh-ghlas, Dughlas, black water. It's where we come from."

[harryhotspur]

"Oh, ay?" Harry asks. "Didst rise from this very river?"

[likeroaringlions]

"Crawled right out of the water!" He slows his horse again, mindful of that slight lameness. And they can see the outskirts of the village by now, no need to trample down his own tenants. (...his father's own tenants. They aren't his yet.)

"No--but this is our old land. I was running about here as a bairn, when I wasny at Stirling with my dad." He's fond of the place, and it's plain to hear in his voice.

[harryhotspur]

Alright, in that case, he won't mock it.

"Thy father-- he is yet at Stirling, is he not?"

[likeroaringlions]

"Aye, he's up to his neck in King's business." Isn't he always? Hell, he's probably gained himself another hundred acres of land since the two of them set out. William shrugs.

They're starting to pass other people now: a wood-cutter, an old woman with geese. And now they're among buildings of increasing substance. There's a handsome church, fairly new.

And, eventually, an inn. It's not exactly bustling, but there's a man in the yard to take their horses.

...and to scold William for Parsnip's lameness.

Dammit.

[harryhotspur]

Of course Harry doesn't smirk over this! Harry is not that kind of person!

"Come, shall we in?"

[likeroaringlions]

"It's all very well for some of us," the man is saying, as William tries to hurry into the inn. "It's all very well for fine young gentlemen with a hundred horses, but some of us have to learn how to take care of what we have--"

So William is more kind of slinking shamefully than striding, as they head in. He calls for a private room.

[harryhotspur]

Harry picks up the pace, passing through the door the innkeeper indicates--

--only it's Milliways on the other side.

"Oh," he says.

[likeroaringlions]

And "Oh," says William.

It's kind of anticlimactic, really. Ride a couple of days and there you are back where you started. Sort of.

"Well. We know how you're getting home, then. Uh..." Should he step in himself?

[harryhotspur]

"I am requested to return, it seems," he says wryly. He turns to William. "Shall I thank thee, and bid thee farewell?"

[likeroaringlions]

"I..." He feels a bit of an idiot, is what he feels: the thought of saying goodbye to Jamie and then popping right back in again. But what the hell. Might as well confirm that the doors work. "Oh, I'll step in with you. Just to make sure it works."

[harryhotspur]

Harry nods, and steps through.