“Nay. A bit achy this morning. Rubbed some of the cream Emily made up for me on my leg and it has helped. James said it looked calm enough outside he didnae think he needed someone to guard over him as he came back with the tray.”
“Ah, good, because I dinnae want to go either.” He frowned. “I was surprised to see the morning coffee brought to the room by a lass.”
Robbie chuckled. “So was James. He was bothered about how wee she was. Said they shouldnae be sending up such a wee bonnie lass, nay to the rooms they ken have only men in them. That is just asking for trouble for her. I got the feeling he may have a word with whoever is behind the desk, he was that bothered by it. Think he will say something?”
“Quite possible as I got the feeling it really irritated him, and James has never been too shy to let one ken why he is irritated.”
“Weel, just so long as it doesnae stop the coffee from being delivered,” Robbie said.
“Aye, cannae have that.” He exchanged a grin with Robbie. “So, is there anything ye want to see in this city?” asked Geordie, glancing at the pamphlet Robbie held.
“Was wondering about seeing how far away some of the famous Revolution sites are. Ye ken, the ones Da told us about.”
“Och, aye, he did love to talk about that. To hear him ye would think it had happened yesterday instead of nearly a hundred years ago.” He grinned when Robbie laughed. “We need to decide what we want to see, and figure how far away they are.” He nodded at the pamphlet. “Does that say anything helpful?”
“Tells me street addresses, but nothing more.”
“Then we should see if they have a map, or the man at the desk kens where and how far.”
Robbie frowned as he looked at Geordie. “Ye looked sad for a moment. Something wrong?”
“Nay. I just had the passing thought that Da would have loved being in this city, but he couldnae stop here for long. He would love to hear about what we might get to see.”
“Ye ken it was just because they won, dinnae ye? They beat the English.”
“Aye. He loved that.”
There was a thump at the door and Geordie hurried to answer it. He let in James and put their mugs aside so he could put the breakfast plates down on the table. The scent of the food had his stomach growling.
“That is a lot of food,” Geordie said as he looked at the ham, eggs, toast, and a small bowl of what looked like oatmeal.
“I looked at what they offered and asked for the full breakfast. This is what they consider a full breakfast.” He set the tray aside and sat down.
For a while all was quiet as they ate. By the time he turned to his oatmeal, Geordie was not sure he had any room left for it. He almost smiled when he heard his mother’s voice telling him to eat it, that it would stick with him for the whole day. He then wondered why, on this morning and in this city, memories of his parents were so close and so clear.
James piled the empty plates and bowls on the tray, then sat to savor his coffee. “Don’t think I will be wanting more until supper.”
“It was certainly afullbreakfast.”
“So, any plans for the day?”
“Nay sure. We need to find out how far away a couple of places are.”
“I feel sure we can just ask the fellow at the desk.”
“Aye, that is what we thought.” Geordie looked at Robbie. “Maybe ye can write down what addresses we might be interested in.”
As Robbie moved to do that, James asked, “What are you interested in?”
“He was thinking about actually seeing a few things that we always heard about when Da talked about your Revolution. Da just loved the stories about it. As I said, mostly he loved that ye won; ye beat the English.”
“We did that. So we go to the guy at the desk and ask him. Maybe go see a couple places.”
“Dinnae want to do too much walking around.”
James glanced at Robbie. “I figured that was why you wanted directions. Not able to just wander around the city. That would be too much walking?”
“Och, aye. Leg is fine even though it does ache a lot from the long train rides. The pain I could deal with, but I cannae deal with it when my leg simply gives up, weakens so much it is mostly useless. So I try to keep my wandering to a minimum.”
