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At first, Primrose had been amused by her cousin. The wink and craftily snatched biscuit brought a dimpled grin, and she had nearly laughed aloud. But when Will's name came into the conversation, Primrose flushed hot as if she were standing over the oven's flames.
"Now don't you go and blame Will for this!" she cried out, taking offense for Will's sake. "There's naught that he could have done to stop the fall, and then he hurt himself tumbling down after trying to help me."
Rusty's eyebrows arched like two question marks. "Tumbled down after?"
"Yes. I was trying to bring his lunch up to where he was fixing the stable roof, and I fell, and then he fell when he came to see if I was hurt. And..." Primrose's voice caught as she came to the thing that had bothered her almost more than anything else Rusty said. Will wasn't her Will.
"Yes?"
"Oh, nothing." Primrose couldn't talk about that problem with Rusty. "But it wasn't Will's fault at all. But come! Any other news? You must have some, being Shiriff and seeing so many folk all the time." Primrose hoped that the change of subject would distract her cousin on to some topic of Shire gossip that was a bit less uncomfortable for her.
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