Scotland! pt 2

[likeroaringlions]

They do reach the Clyde by nightfall, though too late to cross at the ford. There's just light enough left for hunting: dusk, with rabbits coming out. William has them a supper in no time. And the rain has stopped, more or less. A dry-enough night for a cooking fire, and it's not a bad prospect, spreading out the sheepskins and blankets to sleep on.

Cold, though. It would have been nicer traveling a month ago, or even just a couple of weeks.

Comments

[likeroaringlions]

"To Stirling? Or to Milliways? I'll be back to Stirling for the king's wedding, if nothing else brings me back sooner. Not sure when that will be, though. Milliways, well, I'll be looking for doors when I can."

[harryhotspur]

"Thou'rt fond of it? Of Milliways? Thou'rt eager to return?"

He's never been sure what he would have made of Milliways if he'd had the freedom to come and go-- how readily he would have gone back.

[likeroaringlions]

"Aye, of course." William gives him a questioning look. Doesn't Harry like Milliways? Well--but he's stuck there, isn't he. "It's mad, but it's no so bad as all that, really. I've got..." Friends there, he'd been going to say, but is it true? Well, sort of? "I've got to know a few people."

...he's definitely not going to mention Jim.

[harryhotspur]

"The people there, ay, they are well enough. --in the main." Some of them... are not.

[likeroaringlions]

"Well enough," he agrees. "You said you've got a friend, that you left a note for? Or is that Security business?"

[harryhotspur]

"Ay, a friend-- Feuilly, a Frenchman."

(actually he probably should have left a note for Security purposes, but-- oh well, X will forgive him)

[likeroaringlions]

"Oh aye? Does he know Bahorel?" Eh, now that he thinks about it, maybe Bahorel had mentioned Hotspur getting along with the French set. (...now that he thinks about it, he hasn't seen Bahorel in a while. Huh.) "That's good. You talk to some of the people there and it's just...you wouldny think there's such a thing as friendship in the world."

[harryhotspur]

"He doth. They did live and die together."

At the second thought, he lifts his brows and asks, "And who says so?"

Though he suspects he knows the answer.

[likeroaringlions]

"Oh, I...it doesny matter." He rubs his nose on the back of his hand, and hunches his cloak around his shoulders a little tighter. "There's just people there that will read into what you say and then go on as if they know all about you." (and it's novel and secretly flattering to have someone listen to what he says and imagine his interior life but ugh no stop that moriarty) "It makes me miss just...going out on the hunt or to play football, and just being and doing without someone to tell you why you're being and doing. Is it...it's been like that on the raids I've gone on. Is it like that in war?"

[harryhotspur]

"Yes," Harry says, briefly distracted from the fact that William is obviously talking about Moriarty by how completely he empathizes with that feeling. "It is. It is."

[likeroaringlions]

"That's all I want," he says quietly. "And it's one thing to go on my own, but it's only half the fun without a friend."

[harryhotspur]

"Hast thou no lads to ride with thee for England? --for I am no fool, I know well wherefore thou wouldst venture on this southerly course."

[likeroaringlions]

He looks sideways at Hotspur, then grins hugely and leans over to punch him on the arm. "Worked that out, did you? Well, no worries, it's no the Percys I have in mind to visit, I wouldny bring you with me and then do that. I'll see how our friends the Nevilles are doing." Ha. Another arm-punch.

[harryhotspur]

Harry can't help but grin. Who doesn't hate the Nevilles?

"If thou wouldst fight--" Oh he shouldn't say this. "Look you, it is an easy thing to set in motion some small skirmish."

[likeroaringlions]

"Aye?" He remains flopped over by Harry, lying on the sheepskins now, propped on one elbow. "I thought I'd just bring along ten or a dozen lads and see what we ran into."

You know, all spontaneous like.

[harryhotspur]

"It may do well," Harry agrees. "But what shalt thou do if thou com'st across nary a Neville?"

[likeroaringlions]

"Console myself with bringing home a few cattle, won't I? It's good practice."

[harryhotspur]

Harry's in Battle Plan Mode now. "Ay, do so, but do not steal them by stealth, as a thief in the night-- make plain to all who might sleep within 'twas the family Douglas did such a thing-- and then, in honor, they cannot but respond-- if not that night, then upon the morrow or some days after."

[likeroaringlions]

He looks up at Hotspur, and then back into the fire. "My father would just about murder me." William may not care too much about the shame of stealing cattle by stealth as a thief in the night--but it's pleasant to hear Hotspur urge honor.

[harryhotspur]

Harry snorts. "Art not past the age of fearing thy father?"

(Was he?)

[likeroaringlions]

William falls quiet for a moment or two before laughing. "I didny say I was afraid. I said he'd just about murder me. Just a statement of fact."

[harryhotspur]

"Well, so shall the Nevilles, if thou shouldst face them in battle," Harry says. "If thou dost not fear it, think not of it."

[likeroaringlions]

"That's right. You canny think too much on any of it. Canny picture it in your head too much."

He yawns and curls up, pillowing his head on his arm now.

[harryhotspur]

"Not if it will turn thee from thy purpose." Picturing glorious things is fun!

Harry glances down at William. He's still sitting up, his arms resting on his knees.

[likeroaringlions]

Yes, it's plain from the way William smiles into the fire that he's on top of the picturing-glorious-things situation. (Suppose the Nevilles do come swarming after him, ring his castle; suppose he holds them off, rallying the frightened castle people; suppose he goes out to fight, one on one, man on man; suppose he wins; suppose he has the choice, whether to kill his man or spare him and hold him prisoner...) "Too much to ask you to join me on a raid, isn't it," he asks abruptly.