Ian and Caitlin were disappointed at the pace, especially since June and Shauna would not let them get too far ahead of the others. Still they managed to find all sorts of interesting things to look at and interesting questions to ask. They even cajoled a chestnut vendor into blowing up his fire to roast some nuts for them.
They had gone perhaps halfway down the main aisle when Shamus, the captain of the castle’s guards, separated himself from a knot of his men and came over to greet them.
“A pleasure to see you, My Lady,” he said loudly as he smiled and bowed. His eyes never stopped moving.
Moira nodded to the guard captain. “Good afternoon, Shamus,” she said equally loudly. “Oh, I would not have missed it.”
The guardsman took her hand as if to loss it and used that as an excuse to move closer.
“Thanks for coming,” he muttered. “The whole place is nervous as a bunch of half-wild dragons. Want an escort?”
Moira dimpled as if she had been paid a compliment “It would ruin the effect,” she said without moving her lips.
Shamus bowed as if taking his leave. “Need anything just sing out.” With that he turned and strolled away as if he had not a care in the world. Moira noticed his sword was loose in its sheath.
What with one thing and another it took them the better part of two hours to tour the fairgrounds. Moira stopped and chatted with everyone she knew even casually and Jerry thought he’d never get his jaw unclenched. Even when Fluffy knocked over a pile of baskets with a careless twitch of his tail, Moira managed to turn the gaffe into a social triumph, getting down on her knees to help the stall owner gather up her spilled merchandise and talking gaily all the while.
By the time the group turned back toward the castle the mood in the fairgrounds had lightened perceptibly. Ian had fallen asleep on Shauna’s shoulder with Fluffy’s leash still clutched tight in his fist. Caitlin was chattering away, but she was content to walk alongside her mother instead of scampering everywhere.
The older members of the party were doing no better.
“My feet hurt,” Jerry said as they picked their way up the muddy main aisle back toward the town gate.
Moira smiled at him. “It was in a good cause, My Lord. Thank you for coming.”
Something in the way she said it made Jerry look at her more closely. “You’re really wiped, aren’t you?”
A vagrant breeze drew a lock of coppery hair over the hedge witch’s cheek, emphasizing the paleness of her skin. “I am rather tired, but very content.” She sighed.
“You’d better rest up tonight if you want to be in shape for the ceremony tomorrow.”
The breeze turned suddenly chilly and Moira shivered and drew her green wool cloak closer around her. “I will,” she promised. “Just now nothing sounds so good as a hot bath and a warm bed.”
“Momma, I’m cold.” Caitlin pressed herself closer to Shauna.
“That’s what you get for not wearing so much as a cloak, like I told you to.” Then she hugged her daughter close against the cold wind. “Never you mind. We’ll be home soon enough.”
Jerry shivered and pulled his cloak tighter. “I wish I’d brought something heavier. This wind’s picking up.”
Even Fluffy seemed to notice the wind. The dragon lowered his neck and turned his head to shelter from the full force behind Shauna’s bulk. Ian stirred and whimpered on Shauna’s shoulder.
Moira looked at the tents beginning to flap against their ropes and squinted her eyes against the sting of wind-borne dirt. “Perhaps we had better rest a few minutes inside the city gate,” she said. “I think I need to sit down.”
Jerry raised his voice to be heard over the wind. “We’re only halfway there. Want to rest in one of the pavilions?”
“Let us go on. It is only a few hundred paces.”
They had reached the spot in the center of the fairgrounds where the main ways crossed. Here the aisles widened out into an impromptu square and the wind tore at them as they stepped out of the relative shelter of the narrower ways.