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]

"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.