(Untitled)

[scots_wolf]

Urquhart is leaning in a dark corner, wrapped in his dark cloak, watching the door.

There is something else behind it every time it opens.

He is eating dried dates, plucking them right from the twig with his strong, white teeth; spitting the stones over his shoulder into the fireplace, some yards away.

Even medieval contract killers have to eat!

Comments

[wheatencrown]

One time it opens onto a small potting shed and a woman in bare feet and wrapped in a dark shawl enters and heads towards the fire.

[scots_wolf]

Some older women can be formidable, like that matriarch in Cologne. Urquhart feels that this one is.

So he doesn't spit his next date stone into the fireplace, he spits it into his hand and then tamely deposits it in the fire.

[wheatencrown]

She watches him put the date in,

"Was that a date? I always have trouble finding good ones in the Winter."

[scots_wolf]

"They're dried," Urquhart says. "Do you want one?"

He holds out the twig to her.

[ohnoitsjools]

Hey, Jools knows this person. Normally, he's happy to see a familiar face, but not this time.

He stands aside for a while, watching as Urquhart gobs stones into the fire.

"My mum won't answer the door when I go round," he says darkly. "What'd you do to her?"

[scots_wolf]

Oh no, the village idiot is back!

"You better get away from me," Urquhart says, "or I might do the same thing to you."

[ohnoitsjools]

Frown.

"What'd my mum ever do to you? She didn't deserve it!"

[scots_wolf]

"Question is, what did you ever do to me?" Urquhart says, giving the village idiot an icy glare.

[stuck_mynock]

So does Atton!

He may be trying to reach down from the rafters and steal Urquhart's dried dates.

[scots_wolf]

There is somebody trying to steal his dates!

Urquhart grabs the hand by the wrist.

"No, no," he says, mildly. "My dates. Get your own!"

[stuck_mynock]

"But I want them," Atton replies reasonably.

[scots_wolf]

"I will let go of your hand," Urquhart says, "and you will not touch my date again. The next time, you're coming off that rafter. That must hurt."