Chapter 13: Chapter 13

"There's only one room left, upper floor."

"Thank you," Callum said. "I think we will manage. Besides, we don't have much of a choice, as there isn't anything much nearby."

"What do you mean only one room?" Oliver interrupted. The innkeeper looked at him as if he was mentally challenged.

"If there's really no other way..." Callum smiled and looked at Oliver. "I hope it's no trouble for you, too?"

"No." Oliver said shortly.

"I will need a name and the pay for the room."

"Gregory." Oliver said "I will wait outside. "

"Excuse my cousin," he heard Callum explaining to the man while he was fixing the paper works and Oliver almost pushed people out of his way.

Oliver was smoking outside when Callum came to pick him up. He sat down next to him, and Oliver resisted the urge to get up.

"I know it's inconvenient, but I couldn't come up with anything else."

"You don't need to apologize to your servant. "

"I still don't see how I've offended you. "

"Are we still playing cousins, so that I'll know how to answer?" Oliver bit his tongue. He was going too far and he knew it. The good mood Callum was showing today might quickly turn into something else.

Besides- what his mood was didn't matter if the lord decided to actually act as he was supposed to and make sure Oliver got the punishment he deserved for how he'd been acting.

"Is this what this is all about?" Callum only asked. "I was surprised you didn't ask me anything after the first night. It's your what, hurt pride or sense of justice? You never lie?"

Oliver almost snorted.

What was this all about, anyway, he thought.

"No, excuse me. I'm speaking out of turn, playing or not playing relatives. "

He stubbed his unfinished cigarette. Above all, he was angry because he probably sounded the way his sister's lady friends did when they were upset about something.

"Shall we?" he said, without turning, and waited for Callum to come after him.

They reached the small room- it was much smaller than he'd hoped. It was the typical inn room, but still better than many he'd stayed in, with two beds, a table, and two chairs in front of the fireplace.

"It's not the worst, is it?" Callum asked.

The entire day Oliver had been trying not to say things he'd wanted to say.

"I've seen way worse. Or was I expected to say something else?"

"I ...you just seem really uncomfortable."

"I'm not. "

"You are very different when you're angry, Oliver. "

And you're driving me insane, was what Oliver almost said aloud.

****

They ordered dinner and Oliver took a look around. The inn was crowded with all sorts of people drinking, not yet singing, thank God.

Servants were walking around, carrying heavy dishes and heavier beer mugs. Two boys were helping them out, most likely someone's kids or child laborers. It wasn't something rare.

Five men were sitting at the table in the corner, playing something will black and white stones. Oliver kept casually glancing at them.

"Do you play?" Callum asked pointing at the men.

"I don't even know what this is. " Oliver said and took a long swig from his beer. It was his fourth, or fifth, maybe. It didn't matter.

Callum waved at the older boy and the kid came.

"Yes, Sir?" Callum picked out a handful of coins.

"Do you see the men over there?"

"I do?"

"Buy the game from them and tell them I send you. " He took out more money " And those are for you. "

The boy's eyes shone "Woah! Thank you, mister! "

He ran off to the table at the other end of the room.

"You just gave him so much money, how do you know he won't just run away with it?"

"I don't, but I'll soon find out. "

Oliver shook his head "You don't care, do you?"

He knew the alcohol was starting to get to his head again. And again, Callum seemed to be much soberer than him.

His master smiled " The risk is worth taking "

Five minutes later the boy came back, carrying the game.

"And your change, Sir." He dropped some coins on the table.

"My change?"

"Yes, I bargained a lower price. You give too much money for this game." Then he quickly added "My Lord."

Callum laughed. He still seemed to be enjoying himself, despite the fact Oliver had behaved horrendously the entire day.

Yet, again- his master's mood had nothing to do with his.

Callum ruffled the boy's hair and said "Where did you learn all that." Callum was a lord, and no man of his position, regardless if he accepted himself as one or not- would even consider touching a servant, let alone a snotty boy in a dirty inn.

"No, it's for you. " he said "You deserved them,"

"Thank you, Sir."

"Now bring us more beer. " He turned to Oliver "I'll teach you how to play later upstairs. If you want, of course. "

Oliver was going to need a lot more than just a few beers, then.

Callum paid for the dinner and took a brandy bottle from the bartender and two glasses and they headed up.

Once they were upstairs, they put the table between the chairs in front of the fireplace.

They sat opposite each other and Callum placed down the brown board. It looked simple, just squares on a wooden square.

There was a simple grid drawn on the table and Callum took out the black and white stones from the other smaller box.

"It's called Go. It's a Chinese game."

"You learned it from your friend?"

"No, my brother taught me when we were younger. I was almost a kid back then." He paused. "Anyway, I've played it ever since. "

"The board's similar to the one for chess."

"Do you play?"

"Sometimes."

"I noticed you're a gambler too from that time in Ella's."

"Playing chess is not the same thing as the other games. Besides, I'm not playing for money."

"It's what someone who gambles would say," Callum said, his tone still humorous when he began separating the pieces.

"I don't gamble. And I try not to lie."

"But you still didn't say anything when I did."

Oliver laughed. "What was I supposed to say? That I saw you hide at least two cards."

"Did you notice that?" Callum beamed. "And here I thought it was my grande speciale."

"Might have been, in a different company."

"Why didn't you say anything, then?"

"I decided my sense of duty wasn't so wounded as those Irish men would've been if they found out. "

"Mhm. Clever. "

"And your Chinese friend wasn't very happy with what was happening."

"Xiao, no. He's just very emotional. And he hates people being late. "

"How much do you owe him?"

"A lot," Callum said. "But don't tell anyone."

"I'm sure no one suspects."

They exchanged a smile and  Callum explained the basics.  Unlike the last time Oliver had seen him play, the Lord now looked relaxed, the boyish and casual manners were back.

"Do you play card often?" he asked Oliver.

"Not anymore. I've played with friends before."

"In the army?"

Oliver met Callum's eyes " Liam said you probably were in the army?"

"I was. But not for too long. On the contrary. " He took the bottle and poured them both from the brandy.

"Why did you quit?"

"I wanted to be a valet. "

"Of course. A woman?"

"No, not really." He looked back at the table, trying to figure out the pieces on the table; or evade the question.

"I know soldiers can't bring their women with them."

"It wasn't because of a woman. And you?"

"If I have a woman?" Callum asked and took his glass.

"I already met her, right? I meant the army. "

"I didn't go." Callum gave Oliver the white stones and put the black ones in front of him. "My brothers did, should be enough, right?"

"Right. "

A dark shadow passed the lord's face, the same way it had whenever the conversation changed direction to his family.

"You won't ask about Edward?"

"The maids already explained the basics."

Callum laughed bitterly. "So what do they know?"

Oliver paused, Callum's eyes were reflecting the light of the fire and even though he knew they were entering a more dangerous territory, he still seemed to be enjoying himself.

"What they know is ..." Oliver took a pause, expectantly.

"You probably won't tell me anything I haven't heard already. "

"But I might say something that isn't true."

"Same thing. A lie repeated a million times..."

"Becomes someone's only truth." Oliver finished for him.

They looked at each other and Callum said

"I just hope he's alive. "

I hope so too, Oliver thought.

****

It was  late and they'd almost finished the bottle. They were both in shirtsleeves, and Callum had placed his elbows on his knees, observing the table.

"You can't do that move."

"How come? You said I can," Oliver said incredulously. "I can't believe it." He threw the stone on the board "You lie even when you explain the rules."

"I didn't exactly lie."

"Of course you did" he shook his head. "You're unbelievable."

"But you win?"

"And you never care when you lose."

"Well, yes..." Callum smiled "you could say that's true."

"Then why do you play?"

"Do you only play to win?"

"I try to avoid games where I know I'll lose from the beginning."

"You never know when things will change mid-game?"

"So you help them change by lying?"

Callum moved a stone on the board "You call me a liar, straight in my lord's face, then expect me to reply honestly?"

"No, fine. You are right, your Lordship." He exhaled and Callum laughed.

But Oliver said, dead serious. "Lie to me, then."

The smile froze on Callum's face and Oliver leaned forward too. He felt like the entire frustration from the day was now boiling even stronger now, threatening to erupt.

However, not with anger, but with something more dangerous.

What was worse was Oliver had the feeling he might do something really stupid now and that would cost him.

It didn't matter, the way almost everything had stopped mattering a long time ago after he'd first seen Callum.

After that brief first encounter in Tennyson's study when Oliver had thought he was ready for any of this, just to be proven wrong shortly after.

They were inches apart and Oliver moved closer. He had the feeling he can hear Callum's heartbeat or that was his own, he wasn't sure anymore, pounding loudly in his head.

"I..." Callum said but didn't try to pull back.

"You what, Cal. Ran out of lies?"

Oliver felt the man's breath on his face, but this time he wasn't going to pull back. Oliver lifted his hand and brushed Callum's hair from his face.

Callum's eyelids fluttered shut and for a second he looked so vulnerable and open. The way he had never before and Oliver stopped thinking.

He moved and a loud pound on the door startled him.

Callum flinched back, pushing the almost empty bottle with his elbow. The glass shattered loudly on the floor.

Oliver pulled back too, instinctively. The pounding continued.

"I'm going to kill whoever this is, " Oliver said and got up abruptly heading for the door.  He glanced back at Callum, who'd slid off his chair to the floor. He was trying to pick up a million pieces scattered around.

"No, Cal, leave..." he began saying when another pound landed on the door.

Oliver opened and almost unhinged the old wood.

"What? he growled.

The man behind it took a step back, disoriented. "Oh, my bad. Wrong room, mate. "

He was drunk and Oliver took the deepest breath he had taken all day and reminded himself he shouldn't kill people.

His look probably betrayed his anger, and he knew how he looked when he was that mad because the man stuttered and continued walking backwards.

"I uh...Have a good evening, mate...Ugh, Sir. I meant Sir. Good night." The man almost broke into a run down the corridor then, stumbling a few times.

Oliver slammed the door shut, still trying not to picture ripping people apart. He turned to Callum, who was still picking up the pieces.

Oliver was just about to stop him when  Callum dropped the piece he was holding and bit his thumb.

"Ughh..."

Oliver knelt next to him.

"Are you all right? You should've left those." Blood had splattered on the floor and Oliver saw the cut was much deeper than he'd thought.

"It's nothing, you cut yourself too the other day."

"It's not the same."

"Isn't it?" Callum whispered.

"No, it's..."

Callum paused and dropped his hand. Oliver looked around for his handkerchief, in a futile attempt to avoid the Lord's eyes.

The kerchief was probably somewhere in his coat, so he took his cravat off one-handed and took Callum's bleeding hand in his other one.

He wrapped the cloth around the lord's cut and said.

"There, you're done."

Callum observed the improvised bandage "You have experience."

"Beginner's luck."

"Just like with the games?

"Just like with them. Now let's clean up the mess and go to bed."