Afternoon, 5th day

"That's just what the infantrie would do, foist a difficult horse on a cavalryman. How are you getting on with her? I noticed you are limping."

By the expression on his face sgt. Grey clearly had no high opinion of footsoldiers.

"Well, it is us, that are their only hope. Why would they waste a good tempered horse on one of us, eh?" He smiled, noting clearly the opinion of sgt. Grey. Well, not all were that bad. The riflemen, he found, were a good and pleasant company and willing enough to take him in while he awaited to find his way back to his own.

"Oh, that. It isn't thanks to Bella." He shook his head patting the horse on the side. "I've been getting on with her well enough. She doesn't have a vile dispossition really..just a bit of wit and game that hasn't been yet lost in her." He looked to the floor briefly. "That's a recent injury. Fell with the horse while sayin' a hello to the Fro... French." He spoke with a sergeant, be reminded of that!
"They are the reason I'm here now."

The young hussar clearly did not want to be reminded of his experiences. Sergeant Grey could still remember the hurt and shame he felt after loosing his first mount. It seemt to be such a long time ago...

"Chin up, we'll catch up with your troop sooner or later," he gruffly tried to comfort the trooper "I'll give you a boost up, your lady needs to get moving. Just walking, mind. No horsing around!" The last remark came with a laugh.

"..I know." He was not worried not to catch up with the 15th. His present position may not have been most desirable, but he had a horse, he was fed, he could ride her when she was not feeling bad and in a way, he had even more freedom to move about than when with the Hussars. He wanted to say more. He missed Bayard and as much as he kept his mind occupied, as much as he tried to have Bella replace his image in his mind, she fell short. Her anticts helped rather than hindered, but still he thought of his first mount in the military.. indeed.

"Uh..?" He blinked, for he's found himself lost in his thoughts. What was it again that the sergeant had said? He looked to the man startled. "Sarg'nt?" Why was the man laughing?

The startled expression on the hussars face sent him laughing again.

"Already daydreaming about the local girls, are you?" he gave him a good slap on one shoulder.

"First you have to get little Bella here moving again. Until she moves her bowels. Come on, I'll give you a leg up."

He looked flustered." Uh ..yes sarg'nt....,I mean, No, sarg'nt! I.. " It wasn't that, that he got all lost about and now he felt like a young boy first told about the existance of girls. He'd sure acted that way, even if he didn't mean to. He looked to Bella and busied himself with the lass, adjusting her reins as if they needed any tempering, and tugging a bit of her main from around the ears, as if it had been caught there.

He cleared his throat, feeling the burn on his cheeks disappear finally. "They are fine lasses, I admit. Though you can't understand a word they're saying. And their lads.. some act quite protective of their treasures." He smiled sheepishly and moved to the side of his horse. "She's allright to be ridden while she walks, is she?"

"Well, I was thinking of your leg... we can just walk with her and see how she does."

Sgt. Grey took off his apron, rolled down his sleeves ans called out to Urqart that he would be out for a while.

Adjusting his red coat he turned to the hussar again. "The girls do like a smart uniform, believe me! Maybe we can find some lasses who want to pet your Bella, that's a good way to get to know girls, too. And for some things you don't need words!"

Laughing, with a bemused Hussar and a constipated horse in tow, he headed out of the smithy's yard.

"My leg is well, sarg'nt." He answered though he still walked with a slight limp. It did pain him, but if he were to compare it to a few days ago, when he had worried that he would loose it even, he was near in best health now. He was surprised to see Sgt. Grey join him, but hadn't minded the company. He had no message to deliever today, and he was quite free as the army was settling. Well as free as a trooper may ever be, with a sick horse.

He shook his head and laughed amused with the sergeant. My, the ladies were always as appealing and as hard to grasp. And sometimes even if they spoke the language, you were as ignorant of their true wishes and feelings as if they have been speaking Portuguese. Yet it was fascinating how drawn they were to animals and to uniforms, if not those of the lowest rank. Though he couldn't say that the privates were unlucky in attention either. Bella walked along with them, and gazed at times curiously about. She looked at the houses that they took. Still she looked to not be feeling to well.

"There be many lasses in this town?" He had checked his small pay and wondered when he could afford himself a good drink, now that he'd be paying for his uniform to be restored, the pelisse in Maggie's hands, while he wore only his dolman.

Captain Simmonds had been perfectly content to let Waldegrave go into the town. There would be shops, with the opportunity to buy something for the mess dinner, so several of the young officers had gone, and they had, after a half-hearted atttempt at shopping, found a clean bar and gone in. But after a couple of glasses of wine, Waldegrave had stood up and left. Not that he did not enjoy the company of the others, but he needed to buy paper and ink - the villages they had passed through had nothing that could be used by a gentleman. There were more officers, and several parties of soldiers, mostly well behaved this early in the day, although one group, from the 27th looked as if this would not last long. But the Young Inniskillings did not concern him. He stopped to look around, for something that might be the sign of a stationer's shop or stall.

Walking alongside the sergeant that knew of horses more than most of the men he'd been meeting lately, put together, he felt rather relaxed and cheerful. Bella would not die, and she was going to get better because they've located the problem, a simple at that, and were now in the process of healing her ailment. He noted an officer with the corner of his eye but payed him no due. It was clear that the lieutenant was off duty and would not need the services of the Hussar to deliver any messages back to the other men.

He halted few steps ahead of the man for there was a group of people in passing, and they blocked their way. Some were the soldiers, glad to be in a town and still mostly sober. Some were the lasses that had, once convinced that there was no harm in coming, been peering curiously at the uniformed men. There were few that had been flirtatious , which flattered the lads as much as it amused the girls. Bella was becoming restless, and there was a certain discomfort too evident in her. She took a step back and then to the side, shifting her weight. Another step back and she's nearly bumped into the lieutenant, flicking her tail irriatated.

Sgt. Grey had decided to take the hussar under his wings. One could not abandon a fellow cavalryman to the infantry.

"There should be! The french haven't come this far south, I believe, so people haven't fled their homes." He looked around. It seemed to be a buisy town moreso now with soldiers comming to the shops and taverns.

"Lets see if we can find a apothecary or herbalist. It's always interesting to see what they offer in foreign places. A friend of mine, he was in India, he told the strangest tales of their medicines. Or a pastry shop. I had some very good pastry in Lisbon. Rich and sweet with that chokolatl they bring from the Americas. I'm told there is a drink made of that, too. Wouldn't mind to try that. But drinking will have to wait till after Bella here is put to rights, won't it?"

He reached up to stroke Bellas nose. She seemed to get a bit restless. Good, good.

One of the Scots Greys - a Sergeant - and a young hussar were leading a horse into town. Not a grey, so presumably the trooper's. There had been some talk of that - a stray from a patrol, picked up by the riflemen and brought back to travel with them. The horse he was leading was restless, and ill-controlled, backing up almost onto his feet.

He stepped out of her way - he did not want her weight on his foot - and spoke sharply: "Keep that horse under control, trooper. Or take it back to the lines and learn to walk."

Now where had that come from?

Sgt. Grey turned around a spotted a junior officer behind Bella. Not one of his. Infantry. Well, had to be saluted anyway.

He did and stepped out of the way to let Bella step foreward again.

Bella jerked her head upwards, as it seemed not even a soft stroke on her nose eased her unhappy state. She lifted her back leg and kicked at thin air, lowering it just enough to stomp her front against the ground. It raised a few earth particles which bounced away.

"It will. First I'll see to this lady, before I'd be joining the company of others." He grinned, and stroked the mare along her neck. He stiffened when he heard an unpleasant bark from somewhere behind his horse. The lieutenant that he's earlier noted was standing a bit to the side. Not wanting that he was to be kicked by a horse he pulled on the reins and Bella begrudgingly followed suit. Just a few steps, so that her legs were not in striking range.

"Yes sir." He answered with a serious look on his face, and a sober tone and a rather sharp salute as well. He had felt offense at the man's words, but held his tongue. Naturally so. "Didn't see you there, sir."

Bella flicked her tail again, and looked back at her belly and then towards the lieutenant, as if studying the loud creature herself. She didn't look impressed, if one could read a horse's look in any way. Her tail flicked again and she moved into a fair stretch. Restless, annoyed, and irritated. Something was sure moving down below in her belly. And she was feeling the full discomfort of it.

She shifted her weight and turned her rump right facing the lieutenant. So much about good manners of the horse. She flicked her tail again much like swatting a fly. The trooper had to force his own face into a mask of seriousness.

He received the Sergeant's salute and nodded in acknowledgement of the trooper's very well spoken apology. But his eye had been caught by the approach of another small group of soldiers, eyeing up some of the town's girls - probably not just this town's either: the information that a Division would be halting near this place would have attracted whores from every town and village within a day's travel.

Looking at Bella one would almost think she was... aiming at the annoying officer. She couldn't be, surely.


[OOC Sadly, I'll have to call it a night ... have to get up before 6/5 UK(stifles a yawn) Oh and move me around as you need. If anyone asks me, no horse would ever do anything on purpose. plain natural bowel movement. can't be aimed at all. No sir]

[Good night. You can point a horse at Waldegrave but you cannot make her...]

It wasn't as if any one expected it to happen. The mare may have had a bad stomach, and she was supposed to be purged, why she was being walked around but they did not think that it was her time yet. They have taken a route to where the roads would bear less men and thought it was a bit more time before she would have her bowels ready. Still as the lieutenant was distracted it looked as if the mare had reached it's final stage. She hadn't rolled, by god, thanks to that! It wouldn't have looked nice to have her do so right infront of all the men, like she was some young and disobediant foal. Still what she did do, made the roll look like a fair walk in the park.

She did give a small bit of indication it was there to be done. Right then. And the trooper opened his mouth to warn the lieutenant. He did, but he was lost for words for it happened sooner than he could gather them.

So what the mare did, had the trooper pale and push at her side as well, to try and divert her body elsewhere.
" Come girl!" He spoke in haste, though he could only barely fight to keep amusement, his second reaction to the look that the man might be wearing now, from showing. The mare's bowels sure emptied themselves in one spurge or two. And as the medicine had worked it's wonders in her belly it wasn't the usual hard essence either. She'd drunk before a little. Well, before coming to be checked, she'd drunk enough. With Waldegrave right in the line of fire, it wasn't hard to guess what had befallen him.

"..Sir..!"

[Good night, Grey!! And.. cannot make her what?.... er do it, you mean?]

Speechless, Grey watched the mare lift her tail and PURGE.
Usually it took at least 2 hours to get this effect, he wouldn't have headed into town otherwise, but there it came. In a wide arc she vented first large greenish blobs and then a foul smelling, almost black liquid. Oh Dear.

Well, that lieutenant wasn't shiny any more. More on the dripping side, really.

With heroic effort he focused his whole being into a single thought:

Don't laugh.




[OOC off to work; just don't make me do a hula dance]

Waldegrave was not watching the horse as it lifted its tail and coated him in foul-smelling, dripping wet green shit.

The sergeant's suppressed laughter, the barely concealed grin on the trooper's face: there was no doubt that, even if they had not planned this, they had seen it coming early enough to have prevented it. Or at least, the trooper could have led the horse away, sooner. Anger made his speechless, as he stepped back, away from the horse, before it had quite finished. He bit back the incandescent rage, and realized that any wild outburst would only make him more ridiculous, improve the story that they would tell.

Waldegrave drew a deep breath, looked down at spattered coat, drenched breeches and boots that already had foul trickles running into them. By the time he looked up at the two men he had hold of his anger. With commendable self control he simply demanded: "Trooper. You will fetch cloths and water, and clean me off."

"Yes sir!" The trooper didn't need to be told twice. As amusing as the sight was, the mare should not have gotten the lieutenant on the bad side of her. Still fighting a grin from spreading across his face he gave the reins of his mare to the sergeant, who had taken them and secured his horse from having another go at the lieutenant. Not that she could have, with the man alert now.

Timothy hadn't had any water on him and even cloths were better borrowed. Couldn't head back as Waldegrave didn't look like a man of patience. He had a commendable control of himself, for a moment earlier the Trooper expected the man to burst in rage. Instead he had but demanded that he is cleaned off, and there was no mad yelling that would make one thing he'd gone mad.

He patted Bella's side, and the horse uttered a soft groan sighing deeply. She wasn't completely finished, but she was held carefully in the direction in which no man or child or woman could be harmed.

The Hussar hadn't gone far, and turned into the first house that looked like it could offer any of the suggested items. He spotted several of the soldiers inside, many on their second or third drink, some talking loudly, and a few flirting with the local ladies. It wasn't hard to order even if the language was not your own, and there were ofcourse the most important words that any man would learn any how. But to ask for water and for cloth looked like more like a challenge at first. It wasn't till his frustration had granted him a good old man who had observed him with curiosity at first. In a passable English he had offered to help. And so with little further ado he was supplied with water and with few folded cloths, which had probably been used to dry the dishes before. They were clean even if showing wear.

He hurried then, careful only not to spill too much water, back towards the Sergeant, who still held his mare, and to the misfortunate man. He was limping which slowed him some and he cursed his leg again for being uncooperative. Little did he know that that night he might yet be running with it.

"Sir! I've brought some water." He spoke and placed the old container of water onto the floor. He glanced to his mare and saw that she looked positively better. But never mind her now, if he were not to hurry most of the vile content on the lieutenant's clothes would have dried. He looked to the lieutenant and couldn't help but struggle with keeping his face straight. It wasn't right to laugh at another's misfortune, especially when it was an officer! ".. Clean off, sir?" Did he still want it, or would he prefer the clothes washed all together?

Waldegrave knew that everything would need to be washed, but he had to get back to his billet before he stripped, and he was not going to walk through the camp in such foul clothes. He had already stripped off the jacket, and passed it to the trooper who returned with water and some old cloths. "Clean that," he said, "and the boots." The breeches he would rub down himself. The trooper thought it funny, did he? Well, first things first. The young man could make himself useful.

"Yes sir." He replied as obediently as the first time and took the coat from Lt. Waldegrave. He slid an arm in one sleeve enough to keep it in place, before he damned one of the cloths brought with him. Once it was wet he squeezed it enough that it did not drip when taken from the bucket and began to rub the foulness of the coat. He did not feel he were this man's servant to clean his boots, but was rather to keep his tongue where it was safe than to consider bringing such a thought forth.

he noticed that there were soldiers who had seen it happen and some of those passing, who had stopped to watch for a few moments and then hurry on. It wasn't too hard to put two and two together, to figure what happened. The horseman was pleased with how some of the stains had been removed from the first sleeve, no longer caked in specks of filth.

It had turned rather moist though. Kneeling he straightened the back of the coat, resting its collar on his shoulder and began to scrub down with the moistened cloth. The corners of his mouth were twitching upwards when he saw the amount of 'destruction' that the his mare's aim had caused. The said horse didn't look at all phased though. Glancing back over the two men she looked content. And flicked her tail again lazily. As if nothing happened. The witty beast!

"Sir." He began as he was near done on the second sleeve, just a part of the front still in need to be scrubbed." This is t' most it can go .. without washing it." The stains were fainter, but still present, while some had indeed disappeared.

"Thank you," Waldegrave took back the now damp coat. No point in flinching at the smell or remaining stains - it would do for a walk back through camp. He extended a filthy boot towards the man. His horse, his shit, he could clean it off. He caught the sergeant looking at him, and stared back, his eyes hard and humourless.

He looked at the boot with a startled expression. It was an insult to a Hussar that he would clean shoes belonging to any members of the infantry. An even greater that he should clean it while still on them man's feet. His amusement flickered. He looked over his shoulder to the sergeant and saw the exchange of looks between the two men.

He looked down at the extended leg and slowly lifted his gaze to meet the lieutenant's. Defiance was clearer on his face now. He didn't say anything but his posture clearly indicated that he would not go down to wipe that boot clean. He was a Hussar! He straightened somewhat. ".. no sir."