Retrace bxbxb

Excessive

Boy did his head hurt horribly. Harper could barely keep his eyes open as he stumbled into a small room at the back of an inn. Neither lord dared to bring him back in such terrible shape, which meant that they would have to spend the day, and possibly the evening, allowing him to return to his senses. Granted, he was still coherent enough to know that he needed his own room. It was unladylike to be around gentleman in such a place unless wed, and he was definitely not wed to either of them. 

Thank god for that. 

He was quite angry with the two. They had gotten him drunk on purpose, because they had continuously shot questions at him with each drink he downed, trying to get him to finally give up the information they hoped for. They hadn't gotten anything out of him, but there was little Harper could do about his situation now  besides lock himself in the small room he'd made them buy him for decency's sake, and try not to vomit. 

His stomach lurched hard as he slid down the wall by the door, trying to keep his breathing level while his heart pumped strange, uncomfortable beats in his chest. 

"Pardon me, miss, but do you need any assistance? The two gentleman you came in with are worried about you." A young maid's voice met his ears as she spoke cautiously from the other side of the door. 

Already they are sending someone after me. 

Forcing himself back to his feet, he let the wall support his weight as he walked back to the door. Taking more time than he liked on the small lock, he finally managed to turn it, then open the door partially. 

"I can assure you that I am well enough." He told the young woman standing before him a proper black and white maid uniform quite similar to his own. She looked to be a few years older. The glint of determination in her eyes made him feel nervous. 

Did they pay her to try and get to me? 

He wouldn't put it past them, but for some reason, he didn't think that they would be too happy if the big secret they'd been trying to get out of him for years came from a lowly maid at an inn. 

"Would you like any assistance? I am quite well versed in helping those who have suffered from too much drink." She tried again, making Harper's insides churn. 

"No, thank you, ma'am. I just need some rest. Have a good day," He said before he closed the door. She was opening her mouth to reply when he did it, but he couldn't stand much longer and not promise to keep their floors clean. 

Once the lock was back in place after some fumbling, he staggered over to the corner where a cleaned chamber pot sat and promptly began losing what he had consumed earlier. His stomach hurt terribly and all he wanted to do was curl up into a ball and try to let the darkness edging at his vision take over, but each time he tried to let it, his stomach released another wretch of vomit. 

His body sagged against the wall, tremors from exhaustion shaking him as he panted to regain his breath after what felt like hours, but surely could not have been more than twenty minutes. He felt frigid and overheated at the same time, though it made no sense to his blurry mind. Thankfully, his stomach had finally run out of things to fill the chamber pot with, which was good, because he didn't think that it could get much higher without causing a mess. 

 Nudging the thing away, he slowly crawled over to the small cot against the wall. It wasn't much, and there was a tear at the bottom that was letting out a faded handful of straw, but the moment his body fell onto the tattered sheet haphazardly covering it, his mind went blank. 

Harper wasn't sure how quickly time passed as he tossed and turned on the old bed. His temperature rose, waking him in sweat-soaked sheets, only to be chilled back to sleep minutes later.