"You try your best, put to the test,
But let's face it now you need a rest.
Can't be easy, ohhh, it can't be easy…
"Give it your all, but when you're small,
You find out life just ain't no ball,
Can't be easy, ohh, it just can't be that easy…"
"Shut up!" shouted Mark, but Dale continued playing. Mark turned and saw that some of the other men training had stopped to listen.
"He's just a child playing at bein' a man,
It's hard and he don't know if he can.
Oh, it ain't easy… It simply ain't that easy…"
Mark's eyes narrowed and he marched towards Dale. "I said shut up!" Azhar came up behind to try and stop him, but Jack put a hand on his arm. This had been a while coming and the last thing Mark needed was anyone interfering.
"What's the problem, Marky-boy?" answered Dale, resting his guitar against the wall and standing to meet him. "It was just a joke. What's the matter, can't you take a-"
Mark grabbed him by the collar, swinging him around and onto the pavement between the steps and the field. He pulled back his fist, then struck Dale squarely in the face, making his nose bleed. Dale brought a couple of fingers up, touched the nostrils, and when they came away red he glared at Mark. "You little sod, look what you did."
"Want some more?"
Dale ran forwards, dragging Mark back onto the field. They slipped, then rolled over several times on the snow.
"Let them work it out," Mark heard Jack saying as they rolled past him and Azhar. "Bit of old fashioned wrestling never hurt anyone."
On the final roll, Dale landed on top of Mark, pinning him down. He brought his fist back, ready to retaliate, when there was a cry to their left.
"Dale… Mark…" It was a female voice, too young to be Mary's. Mark recognised it instantly. So did Dale.
"What's going on?" asked Sophie as she made her way down the steps.
"Some other time," Dale said to Mark, tapping him on the cheek.
Mark wrenched his head away and spat back: "Any time."
"Jack, what's happening here? Why didn't you break the training up when it was getting too rough?" Sophie said.
The big man held up a hand in mock surrender. "Hey there, little lady, it was nothing to do with me."
"Wait till Mary hears about this," she told him.
Dale was up and walking over towards her, wiping his bloody nose. Already, Sophie was pulling a tissue out of her winter coat to dab at it. "Look at you… You should know better. He's only just starting out."
"Yeah," Dale replied, looking back at Mark. "I'm sorry, mate." He grinned as he let Sophie clean up his face.
"You should go easy on him. Come on inside, let's get you cleaned up properly."
Mark stared in disbelief as Dale grabbed his guitar and trotted off back up the steps with Sophie. Go easy on me! Go easy? I nearly bloody well broke his nose! He got up just in time to watch the pair disappear from view.
Jack placed a hand on his shoulder. "All's fair in love and war." He said the words as if distracted.
Mark followed his gaze and saw he was looking towards the far end of the Bailey, where a woman with short, dark hair was walking past. It was the woman who'd arrived with Jack and Robert the other day. Adele. She'd gone off with Jack then to have a tour of the castle and its grounds, but it was Robert she'd had eyes for — much to Mary's chagrin.
"I'll remind you of that sometime," Mark said bitterly.
"Hmm… What?"
"Nothing," sighed Mark. Adele disappeared from view and Jack brought his attention back to his pupil.
"You up to carrying on with your training, or do you need to take a time out?" Even before Mark could open his mouth, Jack said: "Good, that's good, kid. Azhar, he's all yours again."
With that, Jack was off up the walkway, heading in the direction he'd seen Adele going. "I'm… I'm not a kid," Mark whispered.
But no-one was listening, least of all Azhar, who was urging him to get back on the spot they'd occupied before. The dark-skinned man picked up the sword and started spinning it around again.
Mark hunkered down, trying to recall what Azhar had just done in his position.
"Hey… Hey there, hold up."
Jack called out to Adele. The woman had certainly made tracks since he'd spied her, and was now past what had once been the main entrance to the museum. She appeared to be looking for something, when she heard his cries.
"Hey there, Adele. Wait up!"
She waved to Jack then waited for him to reach her. When he got closer he saw that, like Sophie, she was wearing a winter coat — only Adele's clung to her, pulled tight in all the right places. He recognised it as one of the long coats Mary sometimes wore. The kind-hearted woman must have lent it to Adele to keep her warm.
"Jack," she said, smiling warmly. "How are you today?"
"Well, I'm just fine. All the better for spotting you up here. Haven't seen you much since you arrived."
Adele's smiled broadened. "I've been… busy."
"Have you now? Doing what?"
"Trying to get my bearings mostly. One whiz around the block wasn't quite enough to familiarise myself with this place."
Jack looked up at the castle. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I used to come here sometimes, y'know? Visit in the week. It was always free to get in."
"I wouldn't have thought you were the type to wander round stately homes and castles."
"I'm a man of hidden depths," Jack announced proudly. "Do you mind if I walk with you for a spell?"
Adele hesitated for a second, then gave him another smile. "No, of course not."
"Forgive me for asking this, ma'am, but I figure I don't really know much about you and, well, I'd like to. It's kind of what we do around here when we bring someone into the fold."
"What would you like to know?"
Jack laughed. "Wanna hear somethin' funny? Put on the spot like that… I haven't a blessed clue."
Adele laughed too. "There's not that much to tell really. I was an only child, my mother brought me up alone because my dad died when I was very little. Average kind of education, did okay at school. Left school, did some travelling, you know how it is?"
"Indeed I do," said Jack, remembering the wanderlust that had taken him from his native upstate New York, into the lights of the big city, then finally to England where he'd made his home.
"Drifted from one job to the next, never really settling on anything. Never really had something I wanted to do, a life purpose like some people have." She paused to take in the stunning view of Nottingham. "Not like you; I heard you were a pretty good sportsman. A wrestler wasn't it?"
Jack nodded.
"I'm envious. Not of the wrestling, obviously." She laughed again and touched him on the arm. "But that fact you always knew who you were."
"Oh, I'm not so sure I always knew. But yeah, I guess you could say I was lucky. In more ways than one when the virus hit." Adele pulled up sharply and her smile suddenly faded. "Hey, I'm sorry… I… That was real thoughtless of me. What you said back there in York, about having no-one. You lost your family, didn't you?"
"Can we change the subject, please?" Adele said, bristling.
"Sure. Hey, no problem."
She began walking again, without waiting for him to catch up. Luckily all it took for Jack was a couple of strides. "Do you know where Robert took off to in such a hurry?" she asked then.
"Robbie? Why do you ask?" Jack fought to keep the jealousy out of his voice.
"Oh, no reason. It's just that he left without saying goodbye or anything."
"You get used to that," Jack told her, resting his staff on his shoulder as they walked. "You should have seen him in Sherwood. One minute he was there, the next…"