18th late afternoon/ early evening.

"Yes, a bird. A little one, barely learnt to fly. But she's a handful. Tried to have us both around her little wing.. er.. wanted us to do all what she wished for. Never heard of discipline like t' army neither. Did jus' what he wanted."

And then he turned and offered an elbow like a gentleman, before he realised what he had done far too naturally, and he motioned for her to lead the way, while the horse gave a final snort in their direction and then returned to his grass.

"No, Sinclair is a proper doctor, the sort that will patch up your wounds, heal your aches, and have your head if you did something against his orders. And those usually are to rest, don't strain the wounded limb, don't do anything that could make it worse, take your medicine, when told so and not up and go, before your healing is over." He grinned, for the man was indeed of two sides. And one was almost scary for any patient that disobeyed!

"A man who keeps a bird and just what it wishes, but is yet a learned man." she reached her hand out to his arm in response and smiled at him, "Can you show me him? He sounds in interesting man."

She had to hold back a laugh at his tone in describing Sinclair. He sounded a character, to be sure. Ordering as he saw fit and enforcing it, so it sounded. Timothy sounded as if he had experiences of both kinds with the man and she wondered why, although she wouldn't ask him. At least, not yet. "He sounds almost arrogant, the way you say it." she added, "But maybe a nice sort, if you like him."

"I'll show him to you, certainly. He is probably with his wagon and if he's not tending to any patients, he might well be eating or writing away on his papers. Come." He motioned for her to follow, now with a direction in mind it was much easier, and he knew that the wagon was further back, though he might still need to take a few wrong turns before taking the right one.

"He's not arrogant, I guess. Just... very dedicated to his job. In all he does mean well, and I reckon he knows that if men were not to follow his orders they would only have to come again. And it could be worse, or permanent. Yet the army needs able men. "

"I suppose that is true." She sounded doubtful, reserving her own opinion until she had met this paragon of doctor- hood.

"He spends a lot of time writing away, then? Or eating?" She built up her own image from these snippets. A pale man, too fat and probably with a very high opinion of himself, sweating away in a stuffy little wagon and being dictated to by a small bundle of feathers.
However, if Timothy like him, she would at least be polite and it was her own fault for asking. Clearly Sinclair knew what he was talking about, for she couldn't see any signs of illness on the man whom she was walking with.

"Eating, not any more than us men, and writing.. well when he ought to write lists on the patients, then yes. The less patients, is possibly less work of the writing. " He did not ask whether she could do either, she might for she sounded educated in English , though he had to remind himself that might mean nothing. Many Portuguese would learn because it was good for their business.

"Here, see the wagon there?" He held out his hand. "That's his wagon." He smiled as he heard the loud chirping. "...and, that would be Miss Bird." And the bird needed a better name, if she was to be addressed again.

"He is clearly a learned man, then." Although to be able to write was hardly unexpected in a doctor, she had heard of them in the army who could not, or not very well.

The wagon was small and tidier looking than she would expect, the outside clean and the windows clear as you were likely to see. She smiled too when she heard the imperious calls of a bird, "I can hear her. Does she have a name, yet, or is she to be forever known only as bird?"

She followed around to the door of the wagon, waiting for Timothy to announce them however he best saw fit.

"I'm not sure if she's begotten one, since I've last seen her, but shall we not ask Sinclair, eh?" He smiled and then stepped to the door, had a light knock at it before calling. "Quickly, sir! There's another patient, terribly wounded!" It was dark humour , considering that it could happen any day for real and true, and then there would be noone laughing.

[crozier?]

She assumed he was joking when he called out someone was wounded and the easy way the door opened suggested Mr. Sinclair knew the voice and thought so as well, although his overturned chair she saw belied his twinkling eyes.

Hastily she recanted the first thoughts of him- he was not overweight and pale, rather tall and skinny, with the golden-red hair and freckles she thought she would never see on a living person, had never imagined, before she had sighted these british men.
Loosing her thoughts momentarily, the shock of the images she had imagined and the image she now saw, it took her a moment before she smiled at him, stepping forwards slightly.

(only because they .. for some reason sound alike to me, even if they are completely different and ..err.. oops! *smacks self* Sorry! Fixed now!)

"..Ah, I had hoped you would run faster and looked all worried. But there you have it." Willoughby spoke and then motioned towards the girl. "Meet, the lovely Miss Sildete. She wished to see you and the bird." He made a polite wave and then looked at her, wondering if the doctor might just have managed to charm a lass without even a single word spoken in that direction. He might've felt a pang of jealousy and was more startled and surprised he would've done so.

[all good!]

Rob was pleased to see Willoughby, smiling his welcome before he turned to the girl beside him. Self assured, she carried herself, although her expression currently spoke otherwise. He wasn't of the opinion he was intimidating or scary in any way, or at all unusual to look at, but then it wasn't often he spent time looking at himself and his sister alwayys....'stop rambling' he thought to himself firmly, offering his hand and a welcoming smile, "Miss Sildete, a pleasure. You are a local of Portugual, then?"

With a grin to Willoughby he remembered their earlier comments about a bird getting all the ladies attention.

Timothy glanced at the girl and chose to make a bit more of the introduction till the two might find it to talk with one another on their own. It was perhaps also till she could get her voice back, for she seemed quite stunned by the man.

"..She is certainly. Came to join the army, see the world and all that." He spoke with a smile. "We are quite fortunate, no?" He looked at the bird, who , when seeing the girl went to hop onto Sinclair's shoulder. She chirped a few times, hopped up and down then pecked at Sinclair's ear and looked at the girl again.

The bird was joining them too, she realised, as she hoisted herself up onto the wagon and turned to wait for timothy to join them.

"err...Yes, I am watching you all go past and though I might like to see what it was like." Inwardly she cringed. was, not am. He wasn't any different, was still an arrogant man, by the way he had easily helpd her up, was assuming Timothy would be coming in too....

"Timothy told me about this bird. He said you found it somewhere?"

He followed the girl into the wagon, and smiled as the bird hopped and tried to fly, succeeded for a little to land on his shoulder. She chirped and hopped left and right, greeting Timothy, the lad that she'd known and who fed her too. She jumped on his hand then and pecked at the fingers, for there was food there a while ago and she was hungry again.

Timothy already? The girl would want watching, to be sure.
"Oh he told ye baout this wee bundle of trouble, then?" He watched her flit across to Willoughby, peck at his fingers.
"Here, laddie, seems she reckons yer ter be a-feeding her. I've some grains t'fussy little one can start trying over here."

Carefully he wriggled between Sidlete and the wall, opening the cupboard to pass Willoughby some grain. "She's a fussy wee thing, but she followed us along, wouldn't leave t'wagon, so I guess she'll stay here for a while longer." He added to Sildete.
"ANd yerself? And please, sit down." He righted the hastily departed chair, swept the papers into a locker and offered her a choice of seats.

Timothy took the offered grain, and had some in the palm of his hand, to which the bird hopped and had sat first at his wrist, strained her little neck, tilted her head a bit as if judging the food that she was offered. He made a chirp and hopped a bit closer, puffed up and was opening her beak as if she wanted to be fed and not to exert the effort of taking it herself, from his palm.

She was a loud little thing, doing that too. But once a grain was in her beak, she was eating it happily and was quiet. Atleast for a moment. Timothy moved a bit further into the wagon, but waited for Sildete to find herself a seat. "Please tell me she is quiet sometimes even when she isn't fed?" He said hopefully and felt certainly thankful that the animal stayed with the doctor and needn't come about with him.

It seemed he was speaking a different language, for a moment, before she got used to it, and she wasn't sure she'd gathered it all. What was the meaning of half of his words? He was directing them to Timothy, but she could not but wonder if he was instead talking a code only the two men would understand.

She sat, though, watching the hopping, flitting little bord dance around TImothy's wrist. Good with horses, good with birds...a man she would keep on the right side of, to be sure.
"ANd myself?" She asked, unsure what he was asking her, as she replayed his excited sentances in her head again, "You mean will I stay? I think so, for a while at least, until there is some reason for me to go." She looked around the wagon with soem interest. It was as clean on the inside as the outside would suggest, although some plates were out and it looked like he was thiking abou preparing some food. There was some bits of wood in the middle of the table and she reached out to touch one- a strange place to keep fuel.

"He makes instruments , miss." Though he was not sure if that was what the wood was about, on his table. "Fine things, worthy of a try." He nodded and allowed the bird to feed, while he gazed at the girl and where she was looking. "Do you play an instrument?" It was a question he hadn't thought to ask before, though he knew all ladies did learn to play something, do art, and plenty of 'useful' things a lady needed to know. He did not know how it was exactly for the Portuguese, ladies or not exactly of such a high standard.

"Sorry. Aye, tis what I meant. I'm pleased ter hear it." He smiled at her, his most welcoming, although he was unsure how fond he would be of her, yet.

"Oh! I should have moved them...unless, of course, ye wish ter play us something?" He didn't want to force her, either, as he reached out a hand to take them off the table, "FLutes, see? Not fully finished, this one...I was thinking about doing that when ye two came by."

SHe shook her head, answering both the mens' questions at once.
"Well, I can manage a keyboard, but that is all- I have never tried a flute before." It wasn't a problem, for her. Music was pleasant, yes, but she had no need to be making it when there could be others doing so and she dancing.
Although, being able to playshe would have a chance to spend more time with this strange man, not at all as a doctor she had imagined. But dancing, she could spend more time with Timothy, who was at least as kind and easier to understand. She shook both thoughts from her head- she needn't spend more time with either of them, if she so chose, and she needn't choose between them yet, either.

"Do you play, TImothy?" The questions they still had to ask each other! She resolved to hunt him out as soon as she could again, tomorrow.

"I've been learning the flute with the help of the doctor. But I've yet to master it, miss. " He smiled at the girl and looked rather at the wood ready to be carved and later sold, as most of them would be. It was a way to earn money and for one, he doubted the doctor would ever go poor with what amount of sources he had for the money.

The little bird had finished with the food and pecked at his fingers as if to ask for more. She chirped and she hopped about then, when no food came, then ascended the man's arm and nestled herself atop his shoulder. She looked curiously at this girl, though perhaps less happily. She puffed up as if to make herself look bigger and chirped loudly at Sildete.

So loudly that the Hussar had to cover his ear and scowl at the bird. "Oy, quiet now. She didn't ask if you could sing." he scolded the bird. He petted her head, which silenced her for a moment and she looked startled up at him, blinking those beady little eyes.

He was a little hesitant to point out that the doctor could play and wondered why that was so. "Any patients in need of care today?"

"Ye'lll master it soon enough, me lad." Rob assured Willoughby, grinning as the bird tried to deafen them all. "It's be better with a proper teacher, o'course." he added, with a due hint of modesty.

It had been a quiet day, for which he was pleased. No doubt there'd be plenty enough to do in the next few days and he'd take what rest he could gladly, without questioning it.
"Only one- some silly fool who tried to climb on the roof of a building and hurt his shoulder doing so- he didn't even have a chance to fall down." THat had been tough due to his own wish to laugh and point out the roof of that particular building was easy enough to get to- especially with the nearby ladder.

"...Some silly fool.. and that I would hear from a man that.." He grinned. "Does seem to enjoy sitting atop such a roof himself. ..Though not fall, I might add." He shook his head at Sinclair and smiled at the girl. "So ... as you might see, he is indeed a fine man, just be sure not to be his patient." He looked quite innocent at his friend, helping the bird to some more grain even if he had decided not to feed her more, earlier.

The two men were grinning at each other like boys, she thought with her own grin. Maybe most men were boys, at that.

"You climbed onto a roof, sir?" It was a startling thing to do, expecially in a man who no doubt could be doing many other thiings- like dinishing the flute he still held in his hand.

She smiled at Timothy, teasing, "So you have been his patient then, many times, to warn me of this."

"No.. only once." He smiled with a nod. "Most fortunate at that,.. mean you no offense, sir." He was grinning at the doctor though, so it was clear that he was in part teasing.

"But it did convince me to take a greater care when I step.. or have myself more of the enemy done in, than they have the chance to do the same." He waved a hand and shrugged.

"Ye merely worry that I'll turn you into a musician." rob laughed, shaking his head and turning the flute over in hsi hands.

"He has nowt wrong with him, lass, but a tendancy ter be doing his job a little too keenly." Slowly he held out a hand to the bird, popping his ear down to his shoulder, "Ye've had enough ter eat, lasdie. Will ye stay and upset yer friend, or will ye be flitting somewhere else, now ye've been fed?"