Ada & The Earl (The Woodhouse Series #1)

Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

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*Edinburgh, Scotland*

The journey was long but it was worth it.

Edinburgh City was a place of dreams and fantasy. Of history and myths.

We were dropped off in the city centre, under Castle Rock and I looked up at the stunning Edinburgh Castle over us, taken aback by its beauty and glory.

"Wow..." I was amazed at how something you hear about from word of the tongue or read about in literature could be beyond expectations.

"Beautiful, right?" Louis said as I nodded, still looking at the 11th-century wonder.

"You've been here before?" I questioned as I followed him, reluctantly taking my gaze off the great fortress.

"Of course. Have you not?" I shook my head. "This whole city is full of history and I studied history at the University of St. Andrews..."

I raised my eyebrows. "I would've expected an aristocrat like yourself studying at Oxford or Cambridge like the others?"

Louis laughed. "I was actually at the Sorbonne in France. Studied history there too but then..."

"What?"

We stopped walking, in the middle of Prince's Street Gardens as Louis sighed. "My father died...about a year ago."

I saw the pain in his eyes, and the distress on his face in saying those words. It had been a year but grief was different for different people - to this day I had moments where I mourned my mother and father and missed them terribly, crying in the dead of night. I touched his arm for comfort. "I'm so sorry..."

"It is fine..." He said a smile on his lips and I pulled my hand away quickly, punching his shoulder playfully instead, making him chuckle. "When he died, I became the new Earl of Nottingham so I had to come home and go through the whole process of being formally welcomed into the House of Lords and taking over the estates and land."

"So...why St Andrews? When all of that was done, why didn't you return to the Sorbonne?"

"Three reasons - I needed to be within proximity of London in case of a vote. And I went to St Andrew's because the travel was too far for anyone to come and disturb me. Also, it was my father's alma mater..."

"Smart..." I replied. "I was sent to St Andrews as my family believed I needed 'straightening out'..."

It was his turn to provide comfort - he put his hand on my arm as we continued walking. "I'm sorry."

"Well...we're all not perfect..." I replied, hoping to drop the subject before he pried in a bit more. "Where will we stay?"

He pulled open the strings of the small pouch that Archibald had gifted us, containing the gold coins and shook it, trying to count how much was inside. "It's too expensive for us to stay here so close to the station. We can get cheaper accommodation by the docks." He gestured the way we were going and I frowned.

"And how far is that?"

"Not far..."

It wasn't far but still a trek across Edinburgh. We arrived in the Newhaven district, overlooking the Firth of Forth as Louis explained to me that on the other side of the estuary was Dunfermline.