4th October: Visiting the Lord

"Yes ... I seem to have found an universal constant there. If anything, proper food and beds make them even worse. I hope at some point they will get used to it, though, and at least slow down to normal levels again."

Torrington sighed, not unhappily, and stretched his legs.

"How about you? Did you bring your househod from the Peninsula along, or have you found new staff in London?"

"Do work them hard then.. mind, only to have their energies not be the end of you." He smiled. "I would ask if you lend me Rottlaender to teach some of mine how to make the tea he's known for, and any other that is particularly inventive." He tilted his head slightly and handed Torrington another letter with an offer from a smith, who wished to give his services to him.

"Do you mean, whether I have taken my batman with me?" He asked taking one final sip from the cup which was by now quite empty. "Ah, and for tomorrow would you have time to come visit? Though I expect to see you with a full venetian mask." He said teasingly.

"Tomorrow ..."

Torrington leafed through his appointment list.

"Certainly, if somewhere around noon would suit you? After our training? I'm afraid in the afternoon I have an appointment with my solicitors - it is incredible how much work it is to actually come back."

He raised an eyebrow, waiting for Willoughby to indicate whether the time would suit him.

"Let me check.." Willoughby rummaged through his sabretache, found the little notebook, gave it a quick leafing and then marked the time in the empty spot." That will do I believe." He nodded. "So tomorrow, noon it is then, or would you prefer a little earlier or later?" He waited a moment if Torrington should change his mind.

"Well, that mostly depends on how strict a taskmaster you want to be ... How long do you think training will take? I'll have to change, and then I'm all yours."

Torrington marked down the appointment.

"Speaking of which - we probably should get to work. The sooner we have established what we want to do, the sooner we all can learn the routine."

"That was just on my agenda to suggest now." Willoughby answered with a small nod. He took several papers out more, which they could sketch on, while the notebook was placed becide them. "...I'm quite convinced that by the end of the third day... I'll want to be gone from this place..Already I feel as if a nice trip anywhere but to stay in London would make up for the stress the competition is causing." He tapped the notepad. "...So, first, the music piece or pieces, that we are to use for our presentation..."

"Well, if you want to hold your dinner party in the country, I certainly won't mind."

Torrington stood up.

"Shall we go into the library? There's a better table there, and a bundle of ideas I came up with."

"Oh, I'd rather just move to the country myself and find some peace and quiet there, with a few friends, but not a whole charade of parties." He smiled and looked a little tired as he stood up. "Lets move to the library then." He agreed while scooping the papers up again. He left the tea cup back because it was empty.

"Well, at least you created quite an impression. A whole lot of people would give thier right arm to be talked about that much ..."

In the library, Torrington offered him a very comfortable leather chair, called for more tea, and seated himself opposite Willoughby.

"Now, let's see ... here, that is what I took down this morning ..."

They settled down to work.

"And yet, I do not expect it all to be good, but expect that if anything most will be bad." Willoughby answered somewhat bitterly. He took a seat when offered and then as they began to work, suggested for Torrington to first show what he had been sketching, then give his own vision of it and then see what they could join together and which they needed to omit. He looked quite pleased when they were closer to the end of the show, having only a little more to decide on.

"So.." He began. "We are going now for the grand finalle, with each rider presenting an air his horse does best, but in succession rather than at the same time?" He asked indicating that if such an order was made, they could in theory have them lined up and start from one side and move to the other or, they could have the others perform something rather simple and not stand put, but at the same time not distract from the one 'showing off'. "Do all our horses know how to do the bow?" He asked thoughtfully, his forefinger and thumb at his chin.

"I doubt it ... one or two maybe. I'm not sure whether we should bow to anybody anyway - a military salute might be a more fitting ending."

He spread the sketches out in the order they had established.

"While it is nice thought, solos at the end will take a rather long time and might get repetitive. We should at least have two people go at the same time, or perhaps mix them in between the other figures. I would prefer a more complicated group figure that presents a beautiful final picture as an ending."

The artist in him wanted to create some picture that could be captured as the essence of their effort.

".. I am not quite sure that the army should salute in the fashion of the cavalry though." Willoughby looked uncertain about what that could entail. While the cavalry had an elaborate swish of a salute with the sword he had not quite paid the attention to what the army did in turn for it.

"Anyway... I was thinking of the solos almost like a wave of images. The ripple starts at one end and concludes at the other but at the same, each of the performers has a little time for himself. If you think it would be better that we do it all at the same time.. we might be pressed for timing it perfectly."

He thought for a moment. "I was thinking of the possibility of the other as well. That each performer's figure, is mixed inbetween the others as you've mentioned. But this too might take a while."

"But it would balance solos and group figures and give some visual interest, since not always everybody would be moving", Torrington argued.

"I'm sure we can find some common ground for a salute - and if not, then each does his own. I see no reason to hide the fact that we are from different branches of the service and each proud of our own."

"It would. I am not completely against it, as long as the figures of the group in this case do not distract to the point that the solo might be completely overlooked. If we can find such a balance, I will certainly back it up." He paused. "That, and we must decide on the order of things. Who goes first, last.. inbetween. Shall we go by branches or shall we go by skill or lastly, go by some other way of choice?" He nodded again, thinking that each doing in their own fashion might add additional diversity without ruffling the feathers of either of the sides.

"By skill would be hard to establish in the short amount of time", Torrington answered diplomatically.

"So perhaps by aestethical considerations or military precedence? I would clearly favour the first, but the second will be easier to establish."

He pulled a pile of new sheets of paper towards him, ready to take notes again, and settled in for the next round of discussions.

"Shall we begin and end with the cavalry then?" He certainly did not want to end with the redcoat, nor begin with him, even if by rank he would have been appropriate if considering rank.

"We will, I expect, not go by colour as size is considerably different in some as well, but just to humour the idea..we have a black horse, Trueno , yours. then follows Captain Bernard of the dragoons with his dark brown, then Major Vickery, being dark chestnut, then Major Worcester, being chestnut brown, Lieutenant Darlymple with his dark bay, then Captain Sympher with his dark bay, and then myself with 'gray' with black patches and finally Burlingame with his gray." He tapped the paper thoughtfully.

"What about the order that we had today?"

"Probably the best idea. It worked pretty well, didn't it?"

Torrington hunted for the notes of the morning and compared them with what they had planned sofar.

"Here ... I think it would work well enough, and we know that the horses and riders can do it ... and then ... Worcester's Pesade here would fit in quite nicely ... we just need to change directions once before and split up in groups, so he is in the middle ..."

His pencil busily scribbled.

Willoughby observed, waiting to have it explained first properly, before he could either protest, offer advice or agree on it. He knew that in part this was his competition even if he was not the most senior officer, but he was certainly the one who made the challenge. Still council from Torrington, their brainstorming together, would be immensely helpful to bring the performance up to par.

"Ok, just go on with what you mean and we'll see what can be done."

Torrington explained, sketched out, corrected, discussed, sketched again, dove into the sea of old concepts to find one they had developed at the beginning, pinned papers under the books in the shelves, repinned them ...

After three hours of hard work, they finally had something that (unless an unforseen catastrophe happened) would be their routine for the performance.

"Here - are we agreed on that then?", he asked, just to make sure.

"So if... I understood this right.. we agreed on...that is, I have here to do..." He gazed at the other questionably.

"Yes ... I thought that was how you meant it?"

Torrington frowned, trying to check again whether he had somewhere copied something in the wrong order.

"Yes, just making sure.." Willoughby nodded slowly. "And.." He wanted to know what of the things he did know he could do. Probably just the one he had performed though he felt it was almost anticlimatic.

"...there would have been just so much in which we could show off.. if only we had more time and ...." He grew silent, tapping his chin momentarily to. "Well.......is there anything more we need to discuss?"

Torrington, who clearly preferred a more understated, but perfectly executed performance with more emphasize on the group aspect, shook his head.

"I don't think so. So ... shall I copy this out and send it to all the participants? It might be helpful if you could give written instructions as well. We also still need to write out instructions for the musicians and probably inform the organizers how much time we will need."

He let his eyes drift through his library for a moment, taking in the amount of discarted sheets, reference sheets and books they had consulted. The room had certainly never seen such chaos in the last decade.

"And more tea ... or would you prefer something stronger?"

"We can each copy half of these." Willoughby offered, unwilling to have Torrington have to do all the work, now that he had already been so helpful with the planning part. "I will write the instructions for the musicians and inform the organisers. I can hardly expect you to do it." He said warmly and smiled. "You have gone already beyond what you ever needed!"

He glanced at the papers and looked thoughtful. "I am up for whatever you should prefer at this moment." He said and stretched out a little. "...I am actually debating whether we should send the instructions to the others at all or whether to deliever them personally. I do not want this information to fall into anybody's hands that it should not. Perhaps we shall hand them out tomorrow, as we begin our training? That way we know only they recieve it."

Torrington immediately shook his head.

"We can send Rottlaender and Pye - they will make sure the letters are only delivered into the right hands. But we really should give the others a chance to learn the routine at least in part before tomorrow, and perhaps work on those points they find difficult. Remember, we have only two more days."