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Italy is the most beautiful country in Europe as well as the weakest. France is invincible when attacked on its own territory. My country doesn’t like the sea so the fleet won’t be powerful.
Reinette had said that, or she would say that in one of her letters, historically. France's Navy was far from powerful, and that was well known. They weren't an attacking nation, not since Napoleon. A navy wasn't necessary.
Which was, of course, why this small but very direct pirate ship decided to attack the wealthy-looking French vessel sailing from England back to France. The captain and sailors were more concerned for the large chunks of ice and the falling snow than the possibility of pirates in English waters. And then, there they were.
The commotion caused by the attack woke the Doctor, who had been snoozing over the captain's logs, and by the time he had his senses about him, he was huddled on deck in a fur coat that was two sizes too big with the rest of the male crewmembers. He didn't know where the females were, and therefore didn't know where Reinette was.
He remembered studying pirates in his youth. He was terrified for her safety. Even if they believed her ransomable, they might not be so delicate with her in the voyage back to France.
Snow fell in his lengthening hair, and he bundled himself tighter against the spray of the icy sea water. The pirates appeared to be searching for treasure and staying warm below, while the crew they kept alive froze on deck.
Reinette had said that, or she would say that in one of her letters, historically. France's Navy was far from powerful, and that was well known. They weren't an attacking nation, not since Napoleon. A navy wasn't necessary.
Which was, of course, why this small but very direct pirate ship decided to attack the wealthy-looking French vessel sailing from England back to France. The captain and sailors were more concerned for the large chunks of ice and the falling snow than the possibility of pirates in English waters. And then, there they were.
The commotion caused by the attack woke the Doctor, who had been snoozing over the captain's logs, and by the time he had his senses about him, he was huddled on deck in a fur coat that was two sizes too big with the rest of the male crewmembers. He didn't know where the females were, and therefore didn't know where Reinette was.
He remembered studying pirates in his youth. He was terrified for her safety. Even if they believed her ransomable, they might not be so delicate with her in the voyage back to France.
Snow fell in his lengthening hair, and he bundled himself tighter against the spray of the icy sea water. The pirates appeared to be searching for treasure and staying warm below, while the crew they kept alive froze on deck.
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"Why did you do that," she pressed sharply. "You will need it when you return."
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Like the clockwork men bits, or his frayed purple tie. Little things in his life that were over, from before.
"Besides, maybe next time I'll make it a laser screwdriver, be a bit more handy with welding." He smiled, a little sadly, "And that screwdriver served me very well, very well. Only right it gets a heroes' funeral."
He turned to her, "The crew following your orders all right?"
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There. No, she did not agree with him. But secretly it was another thing she appreciated in the Doctor. He argued back. Reinette knew she was being sensitive. And contrary. But self awareness did not bring any ability to stop such things.
At his question she turned to study the sails, watched as they were hoisted and filled with wind once more. Her hair often cut her vision, but she managed to control it somewhat.
"We should be in England in six hours or so, if the weather holds."
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Not that Reinette's homes were not large, but they weren't the same. There was no movability. No way to take it all with him. That was what the TARDIS was, it was freedom. Freedom to hold onto memories and take them all with him.
He placed a hand on her forearm, trying to imagine that he could give her warmth that way.
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"Would you like me to see about acquiring you a home of your own?"
Though it could not travel in the ways that he wished, perhaps some sense of ownership might ease what was lacking.
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He gestured a bit to the horizon.
"Freedom of it all. Having a place that can run with you. Do you...I don't know if you understand. Like...if your fastest carriage was also your home, you could take anything with you. It would be worth it to hold onto it because you'd need it while you ran. But if all you have is your feet..."
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She watched him carefully.
"But I do understand Doctor. Not only because I have seen the worlds within your mind, and what might be possible? But because I have seen where such possibility might be born. From clock to clockwork man, and ship?" Her palms ran lightly over the railing. "To timeship. I cannot give you the freedom that you need, but I can see that you have a space to call your own."
And perhaps that was part of the problem as well. He left his home, and space, and history to travel through those that belonged to other people. To participate in other's lives, so he did not have to face part of his own. Reinette understood that as well, though she had little remedy for it.
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"I'm going to hug you now," he announced, stretching out his arms.
He would've simply done it, but with the proprieties and what-have-you on board, he wanted to make sure.
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"I can make no objection to that turn of events."
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Rather than merely hug her, he stepped around her, allowing her to keep a grip on the railing as he wrapped he hugged her from behind, his coat billowing between them. He wasn't warm, but he liked to imagine that it would warm her some, having him there, holding her.
He had the oddest desire to tell her how much he cared---how much he loved her. Years had gone by, and there was no doubt in his mind of his affections, but he had no means to express it.
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It occurred to her that he was getting a face full of more of her hair than could be deemed polite, and Reinette shifted slightly. Then, finally relaxing, she allowed herself to rest against him. Her first thought? Was how oddly close they were without skirts.
"Are the women all right?"
She did not include herself amoungst that group.
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"Oh, they'll be fine. Too much excitement for them, not enough sitting around and gossiping. Nearly lost one of them to the water." He shrugged, "Might've been easier on the rest of the crew if we had."
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At the very least he was free of more of her hair. She smiled.
"You should be kinder." There was no real reproach in her voice. "They had a difficult time with things."
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He rolled his eyes. They didn't impress him in the slightest.
"You, Madame, must be positively shocked and alarmed by your attire. To dress like a man and rescue a ship. It's downright heroic. Whatever will you do back at court?"
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"If I had never been taken to Madame Lebon's, if my future had not held such promise? I might not have been allowed the lessons, to see and do what I did. I might be what they are now."
Reinette did not believe that, but it was a fair point.
But yes. Her current style of dress. Reinette actually laughed briefly.
"Take a long, hot bath," she mused, teasing. "And return to my corseted ways?"
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The Doctor pulled her a little closer. Without her skirts and corset blocking them, he could feel more of her against him, and it felt...intimate. Wonderful. And being outside, staring out at the icy water and still being so intimate was...it was fantastic.
"You are aware of what will happen to your internal organs over time?" Of course she was, he'd only told her half a dozen or more times. "And your ribs can't be sitting properly anymore, either.
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While the horizon was fascinating, and the lines of the waves compelling, Reinette felt as if she knew them. There was little there that might surprise her. She could even predict how the shore of England would eventually appear.
The man behind her? She did not know quite so well. Parts of him remained a mystery. And all of Reinette relished that challenge.
"Perhaps sometime I will allow you to inspect my ribs then, to assure yourself that they remain fine, and in there proper place." She turned slightly to fully face him, their coats twisting and mating.
"Besides, if there is damage, it is already done. And I have an image I must uphold."
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As for the tears she rarely shed, he could understand her desire to keep them inside. Crying for fear or grief gave the emotions validiation, and he would never want to allow those emotions to remain alive within him, to admit that they hurt.
There wasn't anyone on board that would care about her image now, nor that of a physician holding her. He raised his hand, to trace a thumb across her cheek, very like how she touched him the first time he saw her as an adult.
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She had meant her suggestion of inspection to be teasing, and very nearly tart. But he had somehow managed to turn her own words against her, and inject them with a serious tone as well. Reinette was unaccustomed to not winning her arguments.
She reached up to remove the Doctor's hand from her cheek, and then to study him through the silence. There was only the sound of the wind in her ears, the occasional shout by the crew.
Since she was without words, Reinette reached herself up in an attempt to balance their warring heights, and offered a kiss instead.
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There was something to be said for that.
She tasted like fine brandy, most likely left over from her trickery with the pirates. He kissed her back, her lips warm against his skin in sharp contrast to the cold of the air and the falling snow.
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He was not warm, but the Doctor was compelling -- both man and mouth. And in Reinette's mind that was a good thing. The occasional snowflake slipped between them, and their kiss, immediately melting between tongue and teeth. But the taste of him was never diluted.
It was a more than suitable way to pass her speechlessness. Against his mouth Reinette smiled.
"I was only teasing about inspecting my ribs, you know."
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"I wasn't." He gave her a quick, teasing tickle against her sides and smiled.
It was a strange sort of longing, but he wished, in that moment, that he were human. That way, he could hold her and their warmth could mingle and be shared. The cold might bite more at him, but it would be all right if it were a cold shared.
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And of course as she removed herself from further assault, she lacled her normal grace. Her weight as different, skirts not there, and the deck coated with ice.
She still smiled however. Then straightened, eyes narrowing as she considered retaliation.
"That was unexpected."
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He turned his gaze back to the ocean, to the edge of England slowly appearing on the horizon.
"We'll get back one day," he said, as a bit of a non-sequitor, "And I'll surprise you with everywhere we'll go. Anywhere we want to go, we'll just go. And nothing will be predictable again."
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Reinette's features remained in repose, perhaps even threaded with offense. Not a hint of smile was suggested.
"I would never make you walk it until at least June. The water is far to frigid at the moment."
And there is it. Her smile, rather pointed. And in his direction.
He saw much, and Reinette was often unsettled at just how much he knew. While she thrilved within the confines of court life? The truth was that even though she had carved a successful life out there, it was not that the palace itself that thrilled her, but her hard earned success there. It was a matter of person, not place. And the walls themselves, the people within them? Often left her cold, and bored. Unsatisfied.
Though she never spoke if it? Reinette could tell the Doctor was well aware of that fact.
"I would enjoy that," was all Reinette was willing to offer on the matter, though he smile remained.
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