17th May - After Review - Cleaning out

"Aye, he was..eccentric" That was a bit of an understatement. He'd been known to insist on wondering around only at night.
"I've never felt the urge ter try and do the same." he grinned, ducking his head, "Nor t'money."
Their was clearly a bird on his head, which flew off and chirped loudly, landing again as he stopped moving. "And, of course, there's nowhere I could store them."

"Well, sir. You do have a whole wagon, could you not have stored some small bits there. Not a horse, mind." He shrugged his shoulders and chuckled slightly, for he saw the bird thinking Sinclair's head was the best perch insofar.

"If only the others could see you that way." He grinned in good spirits.

"It is not done ter have birds on one's head?"
He couldn't see space in his wagon for a dog, let alone a horse. Though maybe a very small bird could be squiralled away somewhere. EH grinned, "And if I kept something it might get..eaten, by accident. or burnt." he paused, remembering the more annoying patients he'd had, "Or thrown"

"I do not follow the latest fashion, yet I shall hope you create a certain pair of breeches for them then, else a bird or two , shall not be the only thing upon your head." Oh, he did remember a certain bird, that he relieved itself on his uniform. And then he was accused of assaulting an officer for it, when all he had done was to aim for the bird. It wasn't either a tiny bit of poop, for the bird was large. Still a smaller kind than that of a bird of prey, luckily.

"Thrown? ..by yourself, sir, or by a patient that you'd have? For the latter you can well charge them for anything destroyed or damaged." He looked along one side of the stalls and was rather pleased.

"Och, I shall keep an eye out fer that, if it'll make ye happy, lad." though he suspected there were probably worse things to have in ones hair.

"Do I strike ye as one likely ter go attacking me own patients with some treasured possession, laddie?" he brushed off the bird which had sat in his hair, running it's beak through it, "ye, me wee thing, can do that afine from me shoulder. nay...dinna skawk, now..."
Head free he stuck it further off the roof, "And how are ye going down there? almost safe fer me ter come down?"

"Well, I'd first ask, whether that question was meant to be answered." He grinned at Sinclair and left the shovel perched against the wall for a moment.

He looked towards the bird. "Perhaps you may allow her to make a nest in your hair. You'd save in finding chicks." He nodded. "For they'd be everywhere you go."

And then he considered the last question and chuckled. "Oh , sir. It is fully safe. Atleast for one side. No more."

He grinned back, "Dinna fear, laddie. I willna be throwing things at ye, yet at least. And mebbe a nest in me hair ain't such a bad idea..." he broke into a chuckle, "all t'ladies seem ter do it, in their high society, ay?"

Nests, or fruit bowls or all sorts of things in various parts of the world, were always in fashion with someone, as far as he could tell. Thankfully for his accounts, Scotland had yet to fall prey to it, and he was safe from providing various stuffed birds, or money for same, to various sisters and hangers-on. So far, at least.

Looking straight down he realised just how far it was to the top of the ladder, the likelihood of it toppling. "SO ye are finished t'whole? or just t'half? I wouldna wish ter be accused of watching ye work, now." Although what else had he been doing, he smiled to himself.

"Oh they do, though i've yet to understand such a fashion. It must be heavy on the head, and terrible for one turning it here and there." He thought of the lass from the tavern and decided that her natural hair all loose or bound together by only a string was enough, and nothing more was needed to compliment her prettiness.

He observed Sinclair for a moment then walked up to his ladder and placed a hand against it, to keep it from tipping over.

" I have but half more to do, sir. And then bring the water in with hay. And then I should be done, yes."

"Hmm./" Rob grinned down, "In that case, I shall stay up here, out of yer way..." he frowned as a larger bird could be made out from the trees, circling, "ANd where I can see that." he added, pointing as he levered himself up, shedding birds himself.

He couldn't profess to knowing much about local birds, not enough to tell what this was at such distance, by it's behaviour only. He decided the next time he found an opurtunity, he'd see about getting a glass, so he could at least see it better. Entranced, he walked further along the sloping roof, unthinking of any chance of slipping, peering further away.

"Haha, very well, sir. " He shook his head and moved away from the ladder. "I shall tell you once I am done, so that I may release you from your high prison, up there."

With a chuckle he moved back to the cart and turned so to begin cleaning the next stall, at last on the other side.

"Most considerate, thankee." Rob was still focusing more on the bird than anything else, so it was probably good that there was a pronounced lip come the end of the roof, else he may well have walked right off the end.
Eventually the bird- whatever it was- gave up and swopped off in the other direction, which Rob blamed on the amount of noise the horses were making. or the men.

"Ahh..." the smaller birds had settled a wee distance back to complain at him, and dutifully he perched on the raised edge there, rather than move back, though he edged down the the guttering again. It was a different view, here, if he craned his neck he could see inside the open door, so following the entire cleaning out process. "Ye've done well there, laddie."

"Thank you, sir. It is not the finest... yet.." He smiled, for he'd done as best as he could.

"Careful not to fall sir. I must remind you that my skills of healing and treatment of the sort aren't much existent beyond a bind or two, just to slow the bleeding. So I could certainly not aid you, should you fall."

Rob frowned, "But ye promised me ter at t'least let someone ken I'd a fallen, laddie." and he looked hurt, too.
"Although mebbe, if yer as untalented as ye say, tis fer t'best not ter..." he grinned as he levered himself to hanging almost halfway off the roof, "See, there is nay danger, laddie. I've been doing this since afore ye was about, nay doubt."

He grinned as he rolled back up, collecting birds as he again settled, sitting with his back against the raise now, one foot swinging down towards the ground. It was flat that he was looking to sit on, and it was flat that he had found, head for heights or no. "I've every faith in you." he added, trying to ensure there was no lasting sting in his mock-hurt words.

".. I would have sir. But to aid you when it is most importantly. Why, I could if you were awake to so tell me, but were you unconscious, I'd have only tried and hoped that what I did did not do more harm than it did good."

Which was just what Sinclair had said next. He grinned in turn. "Not untalented sir, I do hope, just rather unlearnt."

And then he observed worriedly as Sinclair had committed himself to his 'stunts' of testing out if the roof would hold at all, and at the edge and so that he'd moved, Willoughby observed not quite at ease. With such a pleasant company and a good man, an injury that might end it, would've been a terrible thing and himself a most disastrous loss.

It didn't quite calm his nerves that the doctor had faith in him after all. Though as long as it did not mean that he would test his limits, Timothy was glad of it.

"We might face the French again, soon." He spoke, so much for injuries related. " Which is good." He adjusted his shirt a little, tugging at its edges to straighten it and also to lift it from where it had plastered itself against his skin in due time of the heat and work. He hadn't minded the hard work even if it were not, well he doubted his grandfather would have been in delight to see it.

"I'm sure my officers will permit me to fight." He grinned.

"Yer Doctor might not." rob warned, grinning at him, "Though if yon officer yells me down, then I shall have nowt ter do but ter bow ter his wishes."
He amused himself somewhat by enticing another sparrow closer, wishing he'd thought to venture out with more food.

"And if that was a warning ter me ter keep meself in one peice ter be able ter patch ye up..." He nodded at the lad, indicating, he hoped, the discussion of the french again. He hadn't yet been convinced that all these battles were necassary, though they were certainly interesting.
Idly he picked up a peice of stone and dropped it down, catching it on the toe of his boot. He wondered if he could kick it up to himself, and catch it again.

"Oh, no sir. Though It would make me very glad, if you were not to injure yourself on my.. watch." He chuckled and loaded the cart as fully as he could, so that his trips back and forth would be less.

"And I entertain myself with the idea, that It shall be myself not the injured but the one doing so in favour of our side." He put much of his weight in first starting the cart to move, and then he continued to pull him to the place where it could be emptied.

"I've surely run out of bad luck..no, doctor?"

"I don't know if a man can run out of bad luck, though fer t'good luck it seems possible." He smiled, "HOwever ye be right in that ye've had a run of it- surely ye mun be able ter remove it ter another..and preferrably a Frog."

Yes, he decided, it could be doen with ease, so he leant one arm out over the side too, shaking his foot upwards and sending the stone spinning up near his hand. Badly timed, however, and his hand closed on thin air as the stone landed on his lap. grimly he dropped it down to try again.

"I'm sure ye'll get plenty of chance ter inflict, laddie, don't worry."

"I'd have hoped some has left for that Frog that was mighty unkind to myself and Newbury, that is the man of the 60th rifles, if you know him. But we shall yet see if he's got a case of it."

He smiled, and for a moment he'd watched the doctor with alarm till he realised that he was playing a rather odd, if not precarious game, up where he was. He shook his head. "Unless the war ends now, I am sure that even if I am ridden with bad luck, there'll be a Frog to match mine." He laughed softly. "Come sir, if you are to play with that stone, might you not prefer to do it someplace where you have less of a possibility to fall?"

Rob pouted, much like a small child. "But I canna swing me foot if I'm on t'ground, can I, laddie?" Again he attempted to catch the stone, this time succeeding and grinning happily about him.
"See? I couldna do that if I was down there, all boring and safe like."

He glanced down at the aforementioned ground and shook his head, "I havena met Newbury, I don't think...or at least, if I have he didna have anything too life threatening or out of t'ordinary, so I willna remember him."

"Now now, there." He played a stern look on his face, as a father scolding his child. " Do not make me come up there, to have your ears boxed a proper way!" He grinned then to show he had been but joking and slipped back into his routine of work, shovel and clean.

"Hm. Joe Newbury he is. A good man, skilled in what he does, a rifleman, as I've said. They are quite a fine lot themselves." He spoke fondly and smiled: " Well either a way The Frogs were not too pleasant, yet I may add, rather.. uh.. unskilled in what they did. For they were quite quickly deflected and made to run."

COntinuing his own petulent tone, Rob added down, "If ye come up here, I shall push you off!" and folded his arms sulkily, before dropping them again to try and entice a sparrow or two over.

"So ye dinna mind a rifleman or two, then. Tis good ter hear, I'd say. There often seems ter be more fighting a-tween t'ranks than a-tween yon frogs and ye." but he smiled to show he was at least half joking.
"So ye made 'em run, did ye? Well done."

"You dare push me ,and you shall come with me, youngun'!" He answered all sternly, a hand shaking a finger at Sinclair. Then relaxing again he shrugged.

"Well, I've dined with them, I lived with them for most of the time that I was not in your wagon or atop my horse. I do not deny that my fellow troop would speak ill of any regiment of foot, thinking them lesser than themselves." He smiled. " But... lets say that no matter that really, the riflemen are something different or so.. really, I did not mind them." He mused. "Ah.. and it wasn't us two.. to have them run. No. But the other riflemen and men did. Still, they've dropped their catch so easily and turned tails and ran."

Rob grinned down at the sternly shaking finger, now with a bird sitting on his shoulder he was loath to move more than he had to. "Ye'd make a fine father, if that's how ye'll be a carrying on." he added.

He wondered why Willoughby would be living with a group that was not his own, so to speak. However he mused that the reason might not be one that needed to be shouted to the rooftops, or at least said, loudly, to the man sitting on them, so he held his tongue. "Them Frogs abondoned ye, then? Seems hardly likely ter do a man's heart any good if that's how he's atreated."

His eyes narrowed, "This wouldna have anything ter do with ye ankle, would it?"

"Ah." He looked embarrassed at that. "I do hope that I am not made one, too soon at least. I fear that I could perhaps play one, but be one would be a completely different a thing. Yet.. I am in the army now.. and so it is not possible." Though he knew of children that lived alongside the army, and were born in the very tents of it.

"Too true. Atleast they could have attempted to fight for us.." He joked. ".. It does not do, to not be wanted so much so that one would not even fight over you." He grinned.

And that grin faded quickly, turning into a some strained sort of innocence.
"Ah.. sir,.. no. Not ... right that. " His voice trailed off.

"I wouldna trust just ter yer job ter stop ye from being a father, laddie." He had seen, talked to, the bairns running round, or as was more frequently the case, working alongside their mothers.

Hmm. Mebbe it had been a bad idea ter bring up that wretched ankle again, though he had been supposedly just out here long enough to assure himself it was all better again. "Well, I'm pleased ter hear it." he smiled, deciding to leave it at that. "Mebbe later they'll decide ter fight over ye, and ye'll be able ter turn t'tables and take them a prisoner instead."