[werewolf AU] homeward bound

[tiltingwithlips]

The coronation is done -- and quite an event that was -- and true to his word, the new king Henry, the fifth of that name, provided all that the Percys needed for their journey north. In truth, they needed little; they came from Warkworth with hardly anything in tow, and return the same way.

But they do carry with them the security of the King's pardon, intangible (and if Kate is honest with herself, still somewhat dubious. Henry is sincere in wishing them to be allies, she is certain, but his subjects may not forgive so easily).

It's a few days ride to Warkworth. Kate has spent much of it in thoughtful silence. As they ride up to the castle gate, though, she lets out an audible sigh of relief.

Comments

[valiantrebel]

"We need not call him friend, only liege. He'll be friend enough when he comes knocking with a war in hand."

"What war?" Lady Percy sits, her brows drawn. "Surely not against Wales?"

"I think there's little profit in that," says Harry soothingly. "Besides, there's pardons sent out for Lord Mortimer as well."

At that, Lady Percy's eyebrows go up. "Indeed?"

Margaret Percy has opinions about Edmund Mortimer, much as she loves her daughter-in-law.

[tiltingwithlips]

Yes, well, Edmund . . . is Edmund, sometimes.

"So it seems."

Kate takes a seat beside Lady Percy. "And it may be hoped that with my brother wed to Glendower's daughter, the Welsh will be less ready to attack."

[valiantrebel]

Hmmm.

Well, there's time enough for that later.

Lady Percy pats the seat on the other side of her. "Harry, wilt thou content thyself with sitting?"

"We have been riding--"

"You have been dead," his mother says sternly.

With a glance at Kate, Harry takes that as his cue to sit.

"How much there is to tell," she sighs. "I'd hear from you both at length. What would you know of me?"

[tiltingwithlips]

"Above all, mother, are you well? Have you been safe here? The king's soldiers, they have not troubled you?"

[valiantrebel]

"The old king pardoned all your soldiers after Shrewsbury." She lifts her chin. "We have had more visits from the Douglas's men then either Henry's. 'Twas thy father's going that keeps us safest, though. We must send for him now, if he is pardoned. He must see thee living, Harry."

Harry shifts in his seat and stares very hard at his knees.

Lady Percy turns to Kate. "I told him to stay. I told him to send a younger general in his place. That his men did not reach the field, I do not know how that came to be. But the Earl is old. War is a young man's game."

[tiltingwithlips]

Kate firmly does not look at Harry. She takes Lady Percy's hands in hers, nodding.

"I would have done the same."

[valiantrebel]

Harry shakes his head. "I'll not talk of this and spoil our homecoming."

Lady Percy frowns, and watches him. "What has changed, Harry? Never would I think to hear such words of thee."

"A man may change!" Now he glares. "Even such a man as I."

His mother does not back down. "What came to pass since the day of battle?"

The question is an open one.

[tiltingwithlips]

Well. That is the question, isn't it.

Kate glances at Harry cautiously. How much to tell?

[valiantrebel]

Harry hugs his elbows and bows his head. "All the world thought me dead because I came as close to death as man may live to tell. I will show thee the scar the prince gave me if it will not unseat thee. 'Twas a wound that shook off a host of old concerns. It is not so strange."

"And thus is Harry Hotspur cooled?" Lady Percy looks to Kate and tightens her grip on her hands. Harry is a terrible liar. He cannot truly keep a secret for the world, which is one reason she loves him.

[tiltingwithlips]

"'Twould be enough to cool any man," Kate says. "And leave most of them cold. But fear not, mother, he is hot enough beneath his cooled manners."

[valiantrebel]

"Is he?" Lady Percy's eyebrows go up. "Daughter, what is't you wish to tell me? There is something, by my good name I'll stake it."

Abruptly, Harry begins to laugh. "Incessant, even now!"

[tiltingwithlips]

Is he close enough for her to hit him?

Well, he's always close enough for her to glower.

"Ah, mother -- I may tell you my story, at least, but I fear what you may say."

[valiantrebel]

"No child, then?" She frowns. "What canst thou say that is more dreadful than that I have lived and feared?"

Harry sobers quickly. "Kate, it need not be now."

[tiltingwithlips]

"It must be someday, Harry," she says with a shrug.

Glendower took it better than expected; perhaps Lady Percy will as well.

"Mother, I only ask you hear me to the end." She squeezes Lady Percy's hands. "Will you grant me that?"

[valiantrebel]

"I worry more than ever to hear you ask as much of me."

"Do not give over, Mother, 'tis no cause for grief, if you but listen."

[tiltingwithlips]

Kate nods, and takes a breath.

"When I was but eleven years old," she says, careful and slow, "I slipped my nurse's watch one night and wandered out upon the heath alone. I met there with a wolf, that in a fury bit me."

Another breath.

"We did not know that it was any more than that until the moon rose full again."

[valiantrebel]

That Lady Percy gasps and jerks back is undeniable, though she does not try to free herself from Kate, only stare.

Harry sets a hand on her shoulder, and leans close.

[tiltingwithlips]

"My lady, I am no danger, of that you can be sure. I am still a woman, and a Christian, and not a beast. 'Tis only once a month that I am aught else."

[valiantrebel]

It is not often that Margaret Percy is lost for words. Her mouth hangs open for a few moments before she turns to Harry. "Didst thou always know?"

Harry glances at Kate and smiles. "Not before we were wedded, but after, soon enough. It grieves me not a bit, and never has."

Lady Percy gapes at Kate again. Harry watches Kate too. "There is more to this tale," he says carefully.

[tiltingwithlips]

Her eyes flick to Harry, then back to Lady Percy.

"Aye, in sooth. Before the battle, when we were at Bangor, after the army left . . ." She half-smiles. "My woman's weakness would not let me stay away from him I call my husband. 'Tis given me to change at my own will, if the moon be nearly full. So did I hie me to the field of Shrewsbury."

She looks again to Harry. "So did I come to see the battle met."

[valiantrebel]

Bangor to Shrewsbury? Yet that is -- such a distance, how--

Lady Percy does withdraw one hand, to press it to her breast. "Unfathomable."

"Mighty, and very so."

She twists to study her son; Harry cannot take his eyes off Kate.

"We met the king's army, and nearly broke him," he says. "The prince and I had our reckoning. 'Twas there the world was given cause to think me slain."

"Yet thou livest." Lady Percy lays her hand against the side of his neck.

And there, for the first time, notices a line of scars.

[tiltingwithlips]

"Well, God was with us," she demurs.

[valiantrebel]

"If I grant God anything, it will be that thou wert made a willful creature, and sought me out when I told thee to stay back."

Lady Percy's eyes are saucers. Harry rests one hand on her wrist, as she takes his cheek with her other hand.

"Thou'rt bit?" she whispers. "She bit thee?"

"I should have died," he says softly, firmly. "I took a dagger in my side to the hilt. A wolf's grace is its capacity to heal, for the change to work. But for Kate, I'd be food for worms."

"Ah God, Harry!"

Harry looks at Kate, almost startled, as Lady Percy buries her face in his shoulder. He puts his arms around her as she weeps.

[tiltingwithlips]

Is this a good thing or not? Kate can't tell.

She gives Harry a helpless shrug and tentatively reaches to rub Lady Percy's back.

"'Tis all well now, mother, 'tis all well."

[valiantrebel]

Lady Percy straightens and pulls back. This -- this is not dignified. If she must weep, she'll do so alone.

She holds her head up and brushes away the wetness on her cheeks. "What can it mean?" she says at last. "I -- I never thought they were real."