Quoted By:
"So then, Lucullus, where is this mystery woman you roused me for, hmm?"
"I - I cannot rightly say, Goodman Machares, but I assure you she was here."
The conversation started so suddenly it took you by surprise ... but even caught flatfooted as were, and in a poor position for it besides, you can hear every word they speak - though you cannot see them yet, as the one of the main fireplaces of the common room screens them from you as much as it screens you from them.
"You know, it is a rather curious time to develop a taste for practical jokes."
"I swear, on my eyes. There was a woman here, with the Goodman who keeps the house up the street, oh ... the one with the wheel-table -"
"Nasturtium?"
"Yes, that's the one."
"Whatever was he here for?"
"I don't know, Goodman-Master. He never said one word. She spoke for herself, she did. Told me to fetch you, as quick as I could. And so I did."
"And he let her just hen-peck him like that? Phah! Either he has no spine, or her father could buy and sell him with the household account ... if not both, I suppose."
"She was dressed quite richly, Goodman-Master. A riding habit, of the latest style"
"Oh so? Was she a guest here then?"
"No."
"Pity ... though I must say, you are rather <span class="mu-i">certain</span> for someone who woke me up to speak with someone who isn't even here, Lucullus."
"I-I s-swear, she wasn't a guest here. I'd recall, honest! If I'd seen her but once, I'd remember."
That is certainly not something you care to hear now. Or ever. Honestly, there has to be some way to be less ... freakish. Before you can dwell on such thoughts, however, the brief lull is punctuated by laughter, then -
"And I haven't seen her at all, but I'd wager I'll remember her too."
"No, she ... she's like a statute, stepped off a plinth. A head and half taller than I, if not -"
"You are really intending on taking this lark all the way, aren't you?"
"Master, I swear! I would never, never play wise with you. I - I thought I heard a stage in the yard, even though everything is held up on account of the roads being the way they are at the moment."
"And you came down, and they were waiting for you?"
"No, when I got to my post, the room was as empty as it is now. After a couple of minutes, I was thinking that I had imagined everything, but then just as I was leaving, I heard it again, so I went to my post."
"And there you met the two of them."
"Yes! Er, no. There were three of them. A servant. His or hers, I couldn't tell. And I was at my post when they came in."
"Hmph. If I didn't know better ... "
