[piosenniel]

Gilly wandered into the kitchen to find something to eat. She loaded up a plate with bread and jam, cookies plundered from the stock in the pantry, and a crisp Shire apple. Fixing herself a large mug of tea sweetened with fireweed honey she took the servants’ staircase up to the second level and went to her corner room.

The full moon was up and shone brightly through her open window. Wishing to sit in peace, watching the stars and the listening to the quiet chirrup of the crickets in the eaves, she left the room in darkness, and sat at the table by the window. From below she could hear the sound of voices floating up from the open window in the Common Room. Piosenniel was talking in a serious tone to someone, another woman. Their voices were low, the words indistinct.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Cami had come into Inn fast on the heels of Cotman. Pio, sitting at the small table that she and Gilly had previously shared, was looking over a list of the Green Dragon’s accounts. She glanced up as the door thudded shut and smiled, motioning Cami over to sit with her.

‘Is the meeting over already?’ Pio put down her pen and piled the papers to the side.

Cami shook her head ‘no’, and sat down quickly, asking Pio if she’d seen Bird lately. ‘Not seen her exactly, but I have heard her about.’ She smiled recalling the flutter of wings heard often in the tree outside her front room window, the occasional contented neek-breek when a small saucer of ale was left on the window’s sill. And late at night when all were sleeping, except the twins, the soft pad of barefeet seeking food in the kitchen. Or heading down the lane toward the woods that edged the Pool, the moon’s half-light glinting in her silvered hair.

‘Can you contact her? I need to speak with her.’ Cami went on to explain what had gone on at the meeting, and what Maura wanted Bird to attempt. Pio described the flavor of the smaller meeting that had just broken up that the Inn. She confided to her friend that she had the urge to pack up and take herself and Mithadan, Bird, and the babies as far as possible from the Shire. ‘They hate us here, Cami. It matters not that we have done nothing to them. We are Big Folk, and they want us gone.’ She leaned her chin on her palm, and looked out the window. ‘I am uneasy here. And were you not here, I would go quickly.’

She turned her head back to look at her friend. ‘Bird, yes, I will try to find her for you. Shall I send her to your burrow by the pool?’ Her hand went across the table, seeking Cami’s. ‘There is something I meant to speak about to you earlier . . .’ Cami leaned in closer, wondering what her friend might say.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Gilly sat back in her chair. She was here by herself she could afford to flout convention. She eased her feet up to the table top, ankles crossed, and perched her tea mug on the sill. She was just reaching across to get the last of the cookies, when her elbow brushed the mug and it fell crashing to the wooden walkway below. The front legs of her chair came crashing down on the floor and she leaned out the window to see where it had fallen.

A furtive movement caught her eye, running round the corner of the inn. Someone crouched over, fleeing from shadow to shadow. She gasped, as she stood, her hands grasping the sill hard. It was a Man . . .

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Pio and Cami jumped as the mug crashed and splintered on the wooden walk outside their window. Gilly came rushing down the stairs, eyes wide, shouting.

‘A Man! A Man, Mistress Piosenniel! Running from the window and across the back yard of the Inn . . .’