Katherine bemusedly watched her employer as he wandered back her way, grateful he’d even heard her. She imagined she’d have to watch out for that, for him getting lost in whatever thoughts ink-stained men were prone to getting lost in. She hadn’t a clue really, not even a start from which to guess. But he agreed to the stop and seemed grateful for it and after a sip or two of water, frugality she approved of, he settled down to the ground. Thinking he might take a nap she softly snorted to Honey weighing her options. She didn’t want to press him, he was the boss, but he had said he was pressed for time. 

She turned to her pack and fetched her own water skin and while there helped herself to one of Florie’s cookies. Chewing it she turned when Alexi muttered to himself again and shook her head to see him pull out something and began to write. So they might be there a bit, she thought to herself and moved off a bit from horse and scribe. She was just a touch stiff from being in the saddle and while the scribe’s body clearly wanted him to rest, hers screamed for action. 

She felt more confident of her abilities after the scrape the night before, but she certainly wasn’t in full fighting trim. She still have some muscle tone to bring back and some healing to get to, the new wound notwithstanding. So exercise it was. She began with a series of stretches, a little more intense than those she bothered with upon waking. These were stretches that made her let out soft grunts of relief and discomfort as scars stretched and muscles pulled. She spared no part of her the activity and when she felt limber and a slight burning in all her parts she began some warm up exercises mimicking barehanded combat. She threw punches and kicks at phantom opponents, her minds eye seeing past fights in which such maneuvers won her the day. The imagining also brought to mind the pain of not getting such right and that was as good a maneuver as any. She did not get lost in her practice though, her awareness remained on the world around her, she’d be a bit useless as an escort if she did not and so when she heard the distant thunder of horse hooves pounding down the road she paused and turned to see from whence it came. Back towards where the city lay she could see a puff of dirt upon the road heading towards them. In moments she could see that it was but a lone rider bent low over the saddle on a horse built for swiftness. An official messenger then. She’d considered the job more than once but was too soft on horsed to really put them through the grueling pace required. There was a high turnover of horses among the King’s messengers. 

She shook her head and patted Honey’s side. “Ugly beast.” She said affectionately as the man and rider approached and passed them without pause or acknowledgement.

“Are you ready, Sir?” she asked, wiping sweat from her brow. “We don’t want to lose too much time, not if we want to make Avantshire in your time-frame.”