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Old 09-23-2004, 02:48 PM   #798
Lalwendė
A Mere Boggart
 
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
Lalwendė is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.Lalwendė is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Dressed in her crumpled clothes with her hair carelessly knotted back, Jinniver slowly walked across to the stables. Her head hurt and she felt grumpy, and she thought the sharp shock of the cool morning air would do her some good. She needed to see to her horse and let him out into the paddock for some exercise, but more than this, she needed to get out of the inn for a few minutes as the air indoors was still heavy with the smell of ale and pipeweed and she’d had more than her fill of these things last night.

She spent some time grooming her old cart horse, Nutkin, and muttered to him as she brushed his coat. The horse responded by nudging her affectionately, which helped to elevate her poor spirits. By the time she took him out to the paddock her only ailment was the sore head.

Jinniver’s spirits had picked up but soon she began to feel guilty as she thought of her behaviour the night before. She had been impolite in taking the money from Snaveling. The ale was to blame, she knew, but it had been her who had drunk it and this was no excuse. She frowned with frustration as she thought of what she had done. She wished she knew some way of leaving Snaveling the money he had given her for the pipeweed, but she did not want to face him, and she did not know which was his horse or which was his room, or she would have surreptitiously placed the money in the saddle bags or under his door. She stood and bit her lip anxiously, a little afraid of going back inside the inn; if he was in the common room then she would feel ashamed, and she did not want to return the money directly to him.

As she stood there agonising, Jinniver noticed Andwise and Derufin leaving the inn, about to start work, and she realised that she ought to be thinking of getting some breakfast before starting work. She headed back towards the inn, and the thought of work helped clear her mind. She decided to leave the money with a note of apology for Mr Snaveling; she could leave it on the bar where one of the staff would pick it up and pass it on to him.

“And while I’m about that task,” she thought, “I will write to my niece and make sure she knows to keep herself out of mischief.” The memory of the dream was also troubling her.
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