(AU week)

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly has been telling himself that it's all right to be bound here, after the bitter defeat to their cause. Time isn't passing in Paris--however that works--he's using the time to rest, to study, to learn for the republicans' next attempt--

--he's resting with Harry, Prince of Wales, and studying the swordsmanship of four hundred years ago, and learning how to communicate a few faint ideas of 1830 to a long-gone English kingdom.

So now, spurred by Bahorel's restless energy, the news of Joly's illness, he's pulled out the work he's neglected lately, a sort of extract or paraphrase or adaptation--whatever you want to call it--of the Communist Manifesto. It's challenging work, pulling it together in terms for 1830 Paris, but it's not so very far past their time as all that. It's not a moment too soon for socialism!

Comments

[harryhotspur]

"Skilled adventurers, we," he says brightly. With reliable servants, too: the sword in its sheath has been carefully laid on top of the trunk that rests at the foot of the bed. Harry takes it up eagerly and, fingers fumbling a bit in his excitement, straps it on.

"We could yet take a tapestry for thy Prouvaire."

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly smiles at his eagerness with the sword. What will he do with a real sword in Milliways? God only knows, but at any rate he'll have one. "Oh--well--ehhh--" He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yes? That is--"

Skilled adventurers? More like bold thieves, they! But--the dogs are Harry's dogs or close enough to it, and it is Harry's sword. And anyway, if no time passes, then he can bring it all back in just a moment. Even a tapestry.

"--Maybe wait a little while to give it to him. He's in no mood for monarchy just now. But--" But in the long run, Prouvaire will love it, Feuilly thinks. He hopes.

[harryhotspur]

"If he likes it not, we will return it," Harry says with a shrug.

He wanders over to contemplate one of the tapestries: a unicorn curled demurely in a lush, Edenic garden. They are neither of them very tall, and the tapestry... is. Because he is such a delicate, cautious sort of person, Harry grabs hold of the bottom and gives it a sharp yank. This does work, though it tears two short lines into the top of the fabric, from the nails that held it to the wall.

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Harry--!"

Don't tear the nice tapestry!

Lady comes to investigate whatever made one of the people yelp, and thinks the tapestry is great fun! It's big! And floppy! And strange! She should probably bark at it, and then Hector comes to the same conclusion.

"--we'd better hurry."

[harryhotspur]

Harry starts rolling it up, probably a bit painfully roughly in the eyes of someone who cares more than he does about such things-- though he does take enough care to keep it out of reach of Lady, who has decided that it's time for a round of Bite That Thing. He tucks the roll under one arm, takes a last look around the room. As he approaches the door back to Milliways, he offers his hand to Feuilly once again-- just in case, you know.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Just in case!

And Harry holds Hector's collar with his other hand, and Lady is jumping enthusiastically at The Thing To Bite, and Emilia clings tightly to Feuilly's doublet, and--

Milliways.

(Sitting on the bed of Harry, Prince of Wales, tucked discreetly under a fold of a blanket so no one will notice, remains a French translation of The Communist Manifesto.)