The Green Dragon Inn - Part 4

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Gilly woke in the semidarkness with a start, her body shaking involuntarily at being so suddenly drug up from plumbing the depths of slumber. She listened quietly while trying to clear the fog in her mind, no floorboards creaking, but the sound of a heavy door opening in the distance. It was fairly peaceful except for the occasional explosion of laughter or quickly hushed shouts from the commons room below.

Through the open window the soft murmur of a man and woman speaking could be heard, the rustle of the north wind in the trees playing with their words, chasing them away across the clearing.

Is someone smoking a pipe in here?, Gilly thought as she fancied the room smelled rather like Longbottom leaf. She couldn’t imagine it was Benia and it was too strong to have been Silvanis earlier that evening.

The hobbit unfolded herself from the chair and clutching the fire iron she had armed herself with before retiring, lightly walked to the door of Benia’s room. In the dim moonlight she could see her friend propped up in bed, but could not make out if her eyes were open or shut. As she walked closer she saw the moonlight catch a stream of smoke sifting in through her open window. Crossing over, Gilly looked out to see the yard below and the faint figures of a couple by the well. The wind carried the sound of horses as the candle on the well guttered and was extinguished. No pipe there, she thought to herself.

“What foul dragon is that smoke coming from?” Gilly sighed closing the window as gently as possible before returning to perch in her chair in the adjoining room.

She pulled up her feet under her petticoats against the evening chill and laying the fire iron across her lap she tried to sort out just what she had to do at home to get ready for Carl’s sister and family’s extended visit. Somewhere between gifts and sleeping arrangements her tired mind became saturated and sunk into the deeps of slumber once again.

[ July 07, 2003: Message edited by: Hilde Bracegirdle ]