You, Me: Us

5. Foal O'Clock

Pin and Lainey were in the exact same spots that they had fallen asleep in the day prior. Arthur had let them stay and they weren't woken up until Ted came in. "Pin, Lainey," he said, shaking them awake.

Her and Pin slowly woke up and spotted him, "dad, what are you doing here?" He asked as they sat up.

"Looking for the two of you," he explained as Pin rubbed his face and Lainey got up from the couch to stretch. "What happened?"

"It... got late. I wasn't feeling too good. I must've fallen asleep," he explained and his fiance looked at him a little worried.

Ted sighed and took out Pin's phone that he had left at home, "your phone's been ringing all morning," he handed it to him.

"Who?" He asked, taking it from his father, confused. It was probably Zoe wanting to talk about the other day.

"It's Gaby," Lainey realised, looking down at her phone that also had about 20 missed calls from her. She had placed her phone on silent the day before so nothing interrupted the tea.

"I can give you a lift into the yard if you want," Ted told him and Pin shook his head, sitting back.

"I'm not going in today." His dad gave him a look as he stood up. "I was pretty horrible to everyone last night," he told his father after looking down at himself still covered in food. "I'm the last person they're gonna want to see. I think I'll stay."

Lainey wrapped her arms around him as he looked sad and Ted turned to the door, "Arthur!" The butler came in and looked at him. "My son would like to see the North Hall."

~

Arthur took the group to a different part of the castle, one that looked even less visited than the entrance hall. Lainey loved seeing the old architecture. She was making mental plans to look around and discover everything about it.

There was only so much one could learn from the Maid of the island and only seeing the outside grounds.

They got to a room with several paintings and Arthur was naming every one, "Peter the elder." He was a blonde man with a long moustache, but looked like every old guy there was. "Peter the younger." A child that was still in the large dresses that they put the kids in back in the 1600-1800s. "Peter the wise. Peter the mad. Oh no, I do beg your pardon, that's Peter the Persuader," he corrected himself. "Peter the mad is... there." He pointed to a painting of an old guy that looked senile.

"Lot of guys named Peter in here," Lainey chuckled, looking at Pin as they all looked up at the portraits.

They walked past a set of curtains and Pin pointed curiously, "what's through there?"

"My quarters," Arthur explained. "They're out of bounds."

Lainey raised an eyebrow. Nothing was out of bounds to the guy who owned the place. Of course, Pin would respect his privacy, but truly, this guy was acting weird about it.

"Thought this was my castle," Pin said, looking at his dad. This butler was too protective over this place, like he didn't think Pin should be looking around.

"We're here," Arthur pointed to a door. He opened it for them and they walked in to find a large conference room with a large round table with mirrors and more paintings on the wall.

Ted smiled at the room, looking around longingly, "this used to be the ballroom, where I met your mum." Pin looked shocked and Lainey grabbed his hand. "All the best parties happened here. 'Course I never got an invite.... Until Eliza asked me."

"Troublemaking, as usual," Arthur hummed and then Lainey realised why he seemed not to like them. It was because of Ted, because he was a rebellious teenager who wasn't rich.