They had arrived in Harsem eight hours after they'd left to get all Seinerd needed for his travels. He'd gotten two bags of clothes and brought back a caged pigeon with him.
"I need the means to communicate with the Lord Regent," he said as he struggled against Dagena's pushing foot.
"I can't have a bird in my coach!" she shrieked, trying hard to push Seinerd off the edge of his seat in the coach and onto the floor, "Can't you write Rainald a letter or something? He gave you a pouch full of money, just hire someone to send the letter!"
Fed up with her antics, Seinerd caught Dagena's offending foot in his free hand and held it in place, dismissing the violent wriggly that came after, "Lady Dagena, you want to come with me to Harsem for reason you have yet to let me know," her foot managed to wriggle out of his grasps, seeing her ready it for another thrust he quickly caught her by the ankle but he'd been distracted and caught a book with his face for his troubles.
He let her ankle go, still suffering Dagena's assault he took in a deep breath, with the book still stuck to his face, slowly sliding down to fall upon his lap. When it did, he let out the large breath he'd been holding in, setting the cage down to the floor of the coach.
Noticing the passive, non-resistant behaviour and lack of any form of commentary, Dagena finally ceased her violent attempts at throwing him out. Instead, she began to watch him with caution, her hand placed upon the handle her door, fearing the worst reaction out of him; The driver, her loyal guard had gone into the bushes.
Finally noticing she'd stopped after moments of tense and awkward silence, Seinerd looked to her and spoke up once again, "The Regent sent me out to Harsem to spy, I've got to complete that mission without fail or it reflects badly on my mentor, Lord Desmond. I could also lose my place as his aide. I need to relay relevant information to the Regent and he had me get this pigeon in particular because it's fast and he trained it to send and deliver messages,"
Dagena, hearing this straightened up, setting her foot down and setting her hair right, with her voice cracking a bit, she let out words Seinerd would never have thought would be uttered by a Noble to him, "I, I am sorry, Seinerd, for my unruly and unladylike behaviour." With her held low she did well to avoid his eyes.
Seinerd let out a smile, sure not to laugh at her rare humility, he picked up her book and set it on her lap. She ignored it, still with her eyes away from his form. "Apology accepted, Milady."
A knock resounded from Dagena's door, and suddenly, she pulled on the door handle she'd been holding onto and leaning on the door of the coach as she often did, she began to fall out of the coach as the door swung open with her weight pressuring it
With a gasp, Dagena shut her eyes and expected a painful crash into the snowy cold ground.
"MILADY!"
Caught safely in the arms of the driver she was fine, but red with embarrassment. Seinerd had latched onto her thighs, the closest part of her body he's hands hand been close to as her tumble began.
She'd been hefted comfortably back into her seat by the driver and Seinerd noticed his unfortunate inappropriateness and quickly delegated to keeping his hands to himself.
They'd shared yet another awkward moment and Seinerd couldn't help but think if the risks involved in going on the trip with Dagena was worth staying out of the cold.
The driver had knocked to find out if Dagena was ready to go on travelling. Dagena went on to scream at him, reminding him that the entire reason they'd stopped was that he had, "Unfortunate bowels!"
***
When they arrived at the county, Harsem, Dagena was sound asleep. Seinerd used the opportunity to direct the driver to a more obscure and less expensive inn just on the edge of the bustling town. Rainald, the regent hadn't made provisions for the sort of luxurious spending Dagena would certainly have in mind.
Once there Seinerd hopped out of the coach as quietly as he could manage, instructing the driver to do the same as Dagena was still asleep, and he intended to settle all accommodation fees before she woke to protest.
"Good, now help me get the bags out," so far Seinerd's foul luck hadn't come around to bite him yet.
With little effort, Seinerd and the driver had unloaded the boot of the coach of their belongings, lining them up neatly on the reception floor of the rather large inn.
Leaning on the side of the tall wooden reception desk, Seinerd called out for the innkeeper, slamming on loudly on the desk as well.
Soon a groggy looking man stepped out of the door behind the desk to attend to him, "Need a room, food maybe?" by the stench on his breath alone, Seinerd couldn't decide if he'd been drinking all morning or had just woken up with terrible morning breath, regardless, he backed away at the man's offending smell.
"Ah, yes, how much each night?" Seinerd asked, his hand gliding over the pouch of coins that sat heavily in his pockets.
"Whit? Ye never been to an inn before?" the innkeeper scoffed, a bit disgusted, he glanced outside, spying the coach and suddenly looked understood, "Ah, ye a noble brat trying to escape yer 'pressured life'?"
Seinerd rolled his eyes, too exhausted for an attitude. Setting down a single silver on the counter. The man picked it up and gasped, walking back into the room he'd popped out from earlier "Ha! Gonna need my whole register for this single piece, noble brat."
Seinerd had been given two silver coins and a mixture of a hundred bronze and coppers, more than enough to carry on his expenses for a week and have his pockets still full with coin. He'd handed the innkeeper a silver despite accommodations being less than eight bronze coins a night. He just needed his silvers broken down to lesser denominations.
Whilst the innkeeper rummaged for the exact amount of change to give, Seinerd heard the dreaded sound of Dagena waking up; Her screaming his name.
"SEINERD!"
A shiver ran down his spine as he realized he hadn't given any thought to explaining their current whereabouts and situation.
She huffed into the inn, her dress, never minding the snow it dragged along with her. Setting her sights on Seinerd she walked up to him, and it was then she realized she was a bit shorter than the towering man, her head only reached the base of his shoulders.
Vexed, she grabbed his collar and dragged him down to her level, "What is this place? Hm? Didn't I say to wake me when we'd gotten into Harsem?"
Knees buckled, Seinerd tried gently prying her hands off his collar but her grip only tightened, "Ah, Well, Lady Dagena, you just looked so at peace. I couldn't dare wake you from that."
"Uh.." She caught herself beginning to stutter at his words and immediately shut her mouth. She let go of his collar and Seinerd stood to his full height.
"So where are we now?" Dagena asked, surprisingly much calmer.
"Aye! Ye at the Lions Mane Inn!" suddenly the Innkeeper appeared from outback with a pouch and a grin, "Welcome to my very own Inn, Lady Dagena." He cackled a bit knowingly, gesturing eye to eye with his fingers at the two.
"Here's yer change boy! Ye didnae tell me yer carried around the heart of all of Aville with ye." He chuckled lowly, "I should charge extra."
Clearing his throat, Seinerd poured the coins out of the pouch the man held them in and began counting them complete. Once done with this he poured it all into his pouch of money. Turning to Dagnena, he let on a smile and "Thanks for taking me out this far, milady, I must now c-"
He stopped short as Dagena's palm had appeared right in his face as he spoke, "You mean you're staying here?" she gestured all around particularly at the innkeeper who'd begun to pick at his nose, "And I?"
At this Seinerd looked very confused, "Uh, Milady, I thought you were just giving me aid with my journey, not joining me on it." Dagena's eyes widened, disbelieve abound, "Neither the Lord Regent nor yourself have told me your intent here in Harsem."
Dagena stood, perfectly still for a moment before turning right at the innkeeper. "Get me a room please."
"We're all booked, Milady…" he cackled looking right at Seinerd rather than Dagena.
"Then throw someone out!"
His cackle turned to growl instantly, "How about I throw you out!"
Reflexively Dagena stepped back, tripping on her snow-covered dress into Seinerd's arms, "It's okay sir! She will stay with me."
As he uttered the words with what he had started to consider his very own beating heart in his arms, he wondered whether or not he would live past this mission.