We arrived at the township of Stirling before noon. It amazed me how far we had walked in such a short amount of time, but we had already reached the halfway point to Airdiere, the palace city. Stirling was one of the bigger townships in Strathclyde, and it would be difficult to get through it quickly in one day without getting distracted. "Let's hurry," I called to Reid, who was standing a few feet behind me; he was already caught up in some display for pocket watched being sold by a street peddler. "I don't want to lose a whole day in here." Reid just nodded at me and picked up his pace to catch up with me.
We walked down the main road for the most part, asking directions along the way so that we could find our way through the maze of a city we were in. "Reid, do you have any idea where we are?" I asked after we had wandered aimlessly for the past while.
"Of course I do. That lady we asked for directions last said that after walking down this street for a little longer we would find an inn called 'The Ambling Horse.' Then we'd turn right... or maybe it was left. Do you see any inns?"
"No, I don't. I don't believe this street will have any inns; all I can see on this street is vendors and shops. Just admit it. We're lost!"
"So maybe we are lost," he said dejectedly. "What do you suggest we do?"
"How about we find the main street that we came in on. I'm pretty sure that it goes all the way through the city, but you thought we should try some of the smaller roads instead. I wonder how we ever got lost," I said sarcastically.
"Gosh, I guess we'll just have to find the main street then. How do you suggest that we do that?"
"It's just through here," I said confidently. I had seen glimpses of a busy road through the narrow alley the several times we had gone down this road already, and hoped that my suspicions were correct.
"Right," he said skeptically, but followed me anyways through a narrow back alley. When we reached the end of the narrow alley it broadened out into a bustling road. I had guessed right and we were back at the main street. "I can't believe you found it so easy. You're amazing," he said as we walked through the crowds of people in the street.
"It was just a lucky guess," I said casually. "Anyone could have done it."
"Mmhm... I could have done it, but instead I let us get lost in the town."
"Yup, that's exactly what you did."
"Hey! It's not my fault. Every time I asked for directions they took us somewhere other than the main road," he defended himself.
"Yes, but you never had to listen to them. You could've just asked me, because I obviously knew exactly how to get us back here."
"Right, let's just get through the town as fast as we can. Then we can figure out what to do next."
"I like that idea. I want to be at least close to the edge of the town by tonight." We had wasted 3 or 4 hours wandering lost through the streets and the sun was almost ready to set. We pushed our way through the slow moving crowd until they started thinning out. The streets became much less crowded as we neared the edge of the town and the shops lining the streets became more and more dispersed while inns and taverns grew more frequent.
The sun had just begun to set when we found a smaller inn on the skirts of the town. We went inside and the innkeeper greeted us from behind a tall desk. "Hello you two, and welcome to the Ambling Stag."
"Oh! This is where that lady was telling us to go earlier," Reid muttered under his breath.
"How can I help you two?" the man asked.
"We'd like a room with one bed, I'll be sleeping on the floor, and supper for two."
"That'll be five shillings and a turner."
"Okay, I can do that," Reid replied to the innkeeper. He fished around in his pack until he came up with a small bag of coins. He sifted through his bag until he came up with the coins he needed. He handed them to the innkeeper, who pocketed them safely away.
"You can sit at any of the open tables you'd like. Your food should be ready in a few minutes. Tonight it's mutton stew and potatoes with bread."
"Thank you sir," Reid said and then led me over to an open table with seats for two. I looked around the room and saw that there were a few other groups of people, but none of them seemed to be paying attention to us. I was glad. I really didn't want any.
The innkeeper was right on when he said our food would be ready soon. It came only a minute or so after we sat down. The lady who brought out our food introduced herself as Nancy. She was the innkeeper's wife and helped with the food and main upkeep of the place. "I'm guessing that you're going to Airdiere to present yourself as the lost princess."
"You guessed right," I replied. "I can only hope that I really am the lost princess, but you never know."
"I'll say that you look the most like the portrait of the lost princess than anyone I've seen yet."
Then she left us to eat. The moment she was gone I dug in. I'd never felt this hungry in my life! If I'd known that running away from the Master and traveling to Airdiere would've been so hard I might've not left in the first place. But there was no going back now. Who knew what Master Dunbar would do to me.
I'd been stuffing my face like a pig, and realized I should probably slow down a little. The hot mutton stew was halfway gone and I hadn't even savored a bit of it. I looked up and saw Reid sitting there with a bite of stew halfway to his mouth staring at me in shock. "What!" I said, snapping him out of his daze. "I was hungry."
"I have never seen a girl eat so fast."
"I have been walking all day long in the heat without anything to eat. What did you expect me to do?"
"Eat like a normal person..."
"I'll do that now, but I had to get something in me first," I said.
"Okay, just try not to disgust me anymore," he said smiling.
"I'll try."
I finished my supper with minimal sloppiness and waited for Reid to complete his bread and potatoes. "Did you savor any of your food?" he asked me when he was finally done.
"Yes, I did. I just savored it a lot quicker than you."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive. For example, the mutton stew could've used a bit more salt, but the onion and sage she put in it did add just the right sort of savory flavor to it."
"That's just because you're a cook. You could pick out the ingredients in your sleep."
"Maybe, maybe not."
"How about we go upstairs to our room and try to sleep."
We stopped by the innkeeper's desk and he handed us the key to our room. We walked up the wooden steps to the upper floor where the rooms were and walked down the hallway to room number 6. Reid unlocked the door and we stepped inside. It was a small room with a fireplace at one end and a bed and washstand at the other end. "This is a lot better than other places I've seen," Reid said to me, obviously a little embarrassed at the size.
"I'm not complaining," I assured him. "We're only staying one night. It's not like we're going to live in here."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive! Stop worrying about it."
"Okay, I'm just going to set up on the floor then. You can have the bed."
I laid down on the bed while Reid set his bed up on the floor at the foot of my bed. The mattress was a bit lumpy, but it was much better than the cold ground like last night. It had a pillow on it too, so I wasn't going to complain. Reid finished making his bed and set around to getting a fire going in the fireplace across the room. Soon he had a blaze going and any trace of cold was chased from the room.
I had already snuggled up under the covers and was starting to doze off. My eyes were closed, but my ears could still hear the noises around the room. I heard Reid walk from over from by the fireplace and come to the side of my bed. I felt the pressure of his hand on the mattress and his warm breath on my face before he kissed me softly on the forehead. "Sleep well," he whispered as he leaned away from my face. I could feel the touch of his lips on my forehead as I fell into a deep and happy sleep.
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AN:
I hope you're all enjoying the story!
I'm almost done with the next chapter so I might post it later this week so stay posted 😉
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