26th June, late evening: the Dinner Trip

Hunter waited for Torrington just around the corner of the Headquartes building. It was quite warm but he had his long cloak secured firmly in place and closed at the front. He held Firebird's reigns with one hand, with other he tapped a little impatiently on the wall, restless to be off.

Edward had fussed over his toilet longer than usual. Who would have thought that dressing down might actually be more complicated than dressing up? Well, fortunately he had - otherwise he might have committed the unforgivable sin of having to hurry for an appointment twice a day. But he had anticipated the problem and so was able to appear at the appointed hour in a comfortable trod.

When he saw Hunter, he inwardly grinned; he hadn't been the only one to hide his clothing under a cloak. He wondered whether Hunter had done it for the same reason as he had - i. e. not to be caught in his less than proper dress.

"You do not believe in reassuring your guests, do you?", he greeted Hunter with a slight smile as he came near enough not to have to shout.

"Now I have to keep wondering what you wear underneath and worrying whether I'm approbriately dressed ..."

"Peace, my friend, you will see what's under my cloak soon enough," Hunter grinned and mounted his horse. "Speaking of soon," Hunter patted the saddlebag, "I have some cold cuts, cheese and other odds and ends my servant has seen fit to provide. You won't mind waiting a little before we eat, do you?"

"No, not in the least - but I hope you intend to feed me some morsels of another kind soon, before my curiosity eats me up."

Edward pulled a small bottle from his saddle bag and teased:

"I brought some brandy - fit for every occassion and can be used to bargain with the locals should you decide to abandon me somewhere ..."

Hunter laughed: "Maybe I will abandon just to watch how far you'll get with a bottle of brandy." Hunter touched Firebird's flanks, "Come, I want us to have plenty of time to eat our food before the main entertainment of the night."

"Oh, in that case I will hold on to your coat-tails. In that way, if you abandon me, I will at least have another coat to cover myself - or to trade it off. Whatever will be more appropriate."

Edward turned Trueno in a tight circle until he walked next to Firebird. The stallion snorted and shook his head when Edward didn't allow him to greet the mare properly, but then settled into a companionable walk.

"My clothes are nowhere near fashionable enough for you," drawled Hunter. They passed through pickets and Hunter directed them onto a narrow dusty track.

"Well, you requested I dress less fashionably tonight", Edward shrugged. He acknowleged the piquets, then fell into step beside Hunter again. He kept his eyes on the landscape and tried to follow their way on his mental map. He knew the landscape pretty well by now - perhaps he could guess where Hunter was taking him?

Once they rode a little way down the track Hunter undid the ties on his cloak and slung it across the saddle in front of him. He was dressed in a slightly odd get up of what looked like a leather jerkin, rather well worn, over a simple white shirt and brown trousers tucked into a pair of boots, whose maker clearly preferred "sturdy and serviceable" over "elegant and gentlemanly".

Edward grinned. Hunter very much looked like some kind of horse-trader in his clothing, sitting astride such a beautiful horse. In answer he took off his own cloak and hat and revealed his own costume for tonight. He would rather be caught dead than out of uniform behind enemy lines, and he hadn't known where Hunter was going to take him, so he had donned his oldest jacket - the one he only put on when work was going to be really dirty. To appear even more ungentlemanly, he had left it open, neglected to put on a cravat and knotted a red-and-yellow checkered kerchief he had borrowed from Rottlaender around his neck. In combination with his overalls, his mud-boots and his carefully disarranged hair, he thought that he looked suitably wild.

Hunter looked Torrington over rather critically. "I am afraid I will have to ask you to remove your jacket."

Edward raised an eyebrow.

"I think I'd rather not. I never have wanted to be a spy."

"Look, Torrington, I don't care if you go about waving a British flag around the Portuguese countryside, but it might cause problems where we are going."

Edward crossed his arms in front of his chest as if he wanted to prevent Hunter from stripping the jacket off him.

"Then where are you taking us? Because frankly I don't believe I care much for the place if it does not even allow an old British jacket."

Hunter rolled his eyes. "Oh, for god's sake, I dare say I'll smooth it over..." he muttered. He rode up to Torrington, so that their knees were touching and pulled a dagger out from his boot. "I'm going to make a hole in your jacket now, so stay still."

Edward raised a haughty eye-brow and in a gesture calculated to be arrogant he turned his back on Hunter.

"Here! You might want to add some blood for greater realism."

"Oh, for the love of God! Turn around and quit being such an aristocrat at me, or I will demand that you call me Sir George." Hunter flicked his finger against Torrington's head. "Or I swear we are going back to the camp now and you are not getting any dessert tonight."

"Sir George slew dragons, not harmless engineers", Edward muttered darkly as he turned back.

"Oh, yes, you are so very harmless." George took hold of Torrington's jacket and holding the right side away from Torrington's chest, put the dagger through it, making about a two-inch cut in it. "Look, do you know what could happen to the locals who collaborate with the English should the French see it? Granted, most of the time it's nothing, but we don't want to risk do it? At least this way it could look like you took it off a dead man." Hunter put the dagger back in the boot, swiped some dust off his boot and worked it into the cut, making it look stained and not like it was just made a moment ago.

"In this case I would suggest we better make sure that there are no French or French spies around instead of ripping my jacket apart."

Edward eyed the cut dubiously. Then he held out his hand.

"Now it looks like my servant can't mend. Give me that knife for a moment, will you?"

"Yes, my dear Captain, next time I will make sure to get rid off the entire French Army before taking you anywhere. If I ever do something so sublimely silly again." Hunter handed the dagger to Torrington.

Edward shrugged out of his jacket and eyed it thoughtfully for a moment. Then he cut off three buttons (putting them into his pocket), loosend the thread on one more so that it looked like it was going to fall off soon, opened up the seam on one shoulder and last but not least took off the better part of the lace. His drawing coal and a piece of chalk supplied a bit of colouring - black at the ellbows and cuffs, and whitish at the seams where the cloth would be thinning.

After he had held it down so that Trueno's hooves could splash a bit of mud on it, he gave it a last critical look and put it on again and handed the dagger back.

"There - seems I've robbed some poor officer. Guess it was a good thing he had decent horse and some nice weapons - his clothing is nothing to be proud of."

Hunter hid the dagger and looked at Torrington's work appreciatively. "I know you are being snide only because you don't think you look handsome like this."

A sly smile stole into Edward's eyes.

"Oh, I can play a most dashing highwayman, believe me."

He took the cloth from his neck and knotted around his head.

"No cove will twig what my lay is now, Jerry!"

His accent had slipped into something half-Welsch half-overdone-posh, and he slouched a bit in the saddle. Truneo, irritated by his rider's antics, shook his head again and pranced a bit, and was rather surprised that he was only called to order after a few seconds.

Hunter snorted, leaned over and tugged a lock of Torrington's hair from under the cloth, so that it hung 'roguishly' over one eye. "A posh Welsh highwayman? Yes, alright, I will play along."