Ada & The Earl (The Woodhouse Series #1)

Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

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*Cornish countryside/Truro Station, Cornwall*

"It was a maid of my country

As she came by a hawthorn tree,

As full of flow'rs as might be seen

She marvel'd to see the tree so green.

At last, she asked of this tree,

How came this freshness unto thee,

And ev'ry branch so fair and clean?

I marvel that you grow so green"

We had been walking for what seemed like ages and Truro only seemed to be further away.

To avoid conversation about the fact that another hitman was after him, Louis and I had resorted to singing all the folk songs we knew after a brief lesson about Cornwall.

We shared the ballads of the English and Scottish but I took the lead on the Cornish and he showed off his French skills.

Darkness soon fell and we needed to make camp.

We settled for a place near a small lake and while I made a fire, Louis went foraging.

"I should've asked..." Louis returned with berries, edible mushrooms and fruit in his arms as he placed them all on a blanket I had unfurled from my bag. "Where did you learn all of these skills? They're not exactly the things they teach at schools."

I laughed. "I never went to a normal school. My mother..." I replied as I started to clean everything, using some water we had collected from the lake as we made a filter from some muslin to clean it through boiling over the fire.

"She...homeschooled me and taught me things that they don't teach in conventional schools. She thought it was better for me to learn how to make a fire in the wilderness than to learn calligraphy." I smiled, recalling my mother's words to me. "She always wanted me to be independent and to help others. It's because of those values she installed in me that I resorted to helping you."

Louis nodded. "I thank your mother for me still being here."

I smiled. "What about you? I thought a gentleman was trained in politics and military warfare not foraging and singing..."

"My father..." He replied as we started to eat what was gathered, the fire crackling before us. "He taught me wilderness skills and how to survive when on your own. My father was in the navy and he was shipwrecked on an island in the Caribbean for several weeks. He said if it wasn't for his own interest in the wilderness and nature, he would never have survived and he instilled those same interests into me."

I held up my bottle of water. "To our...less than orthodox parents."

"To our parents."

We clanked our bottles together and continued eating. Before long, Louis went for a dip in the lake and I remained on the banks, smiling at his carefree attitude.

I opened my bag, remembering I had swiped a book that had been left behind in my bedroom back at the manor and out fell several photographs and papers.

The first photograph was of me - in my Sunday best and sitting on a hobby horse.