‘The floor fell in,’ said Roland before she could finish, like someone still in a dream. ‘The actual floor actually fell in!’
‘Look, I must—’ she began again, but this time Letitia’s mother was suddenly in front of Tiffany.
‘I know you! You’re his witch girl, yes? Don’t deny it! How dare you follow us here!’
‘How did they make the floor fall in?’ Roland demanded, his face white. ‘How did you make the floor fall in? Tell me!’
And then the smell came. It was like being hit, unexpectedly, with a hammer. Under her bewilderment and horror Tiffany sensed something else: a stink, a stench, a foulness in her mind, dreadful and unforgiving, a compost of horrible ideas and rotted thoughts that made her want to take out her brain and wash it.
That’s him: the man in black with no eyes! And the smell! A toilet for sick weasels couldn’t smell worse! I thought it was bad last time, but that was a bed of primroses! She looked around desperately, hoping against hope not to see what she was looking for.
Letitia’s sobs were getting louder, and mixing very badly with the sounds of the Feegles groaning and swearing as they started to wake up.
The mother-in-law-to-be grabbed Roland by his jacket. ‘Come away from her right now; she is nothing but a—’
‘Roland, your father is dead!’
That silenced everybody, and Tiffany was suddenly in a thicket of stares.
Oh dear, she thought. It shouldn’t have happened like this.
‘I’m sorry,’ she managed in the accusing silence. ‘There was nothing I could do.’ She saw colour flow into his face.
‘But you were looking after him,’ said Roland, as if trying to work out a puzzle. ‘Why did you stop keeping him alive?’
‘All I could do was take the pain away. I’m so very sorry, but that’s all I could do. I’m sorry.’
‘But you’re a witch! I thought you were good at it, you’re a witch! Why did he die?’
What did the bitch do to him? Do not trust her! She is a witch! Do not suffer a witch to live!
Tiffany didn’t hear the words; they seemed to crawl across her mind like some kind of slug, leaving slime behind it, and later she wondered how many other minds it had crawled across, but now she felt Mrs Proust grip her by the arm. She saw Roland’s face contort into fury, and she remembered the screaming figure on the road, shadowless in full sunlight, delivering abuse as if it was vomit and leaving her with a sick feeling that she would never be able to get clean again.
And the people around her had a worried, hunted look, like rabbits who have smelled a fox.
Then she saw him. Hardly visible, at the edge of the crowd. There they were, or rather there they weren’t. The two holes in the air staring at her just for a moment, before vanishing. And not knowing where they had gone made them worse.
She turned to Mrs Proust. ‘What is that ?’
The woman opened her mouth to answer, but the tall watchman’s voice said, ‘Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, or rather just one gentleman in fact. I am Captain Carrot, and since I am the duty officer this evening, the doubtful pleasure of dealing with this incident falls to me, and so …’ He opened his notebook, pulled out a pencil, and gave them a confident smile. ‘Who is going to be the first to help me unravel this little conundrum? To begin with, I would very much like to know what a bunch of Nac Mac Feegle are doing in my city, apart from recovering?’
The glint off his armour hurt the eyes. And also he smelled strongly of soap, and that was good enough for Tiffany.
She began to raise her hand, but Mrs Proust grabbed it and held it firmly. This caused Tiffany to shake off Mrs Proust even more firmly and then say in a voice firmer than the grip, ‘That would be me, Captain.’
‘And you would be … ?’
Running away as soon as possible, Tiffany said to herself, but spoke up with, ‘Tiffany Aching, sir.’
‘Off to a hen night, are you?’
‘No,’ said Tiffany.
‘Yes!’ said Mrs Proust quickly.
The captain put his head on one side. ‘So only one of you is going? That doesn’t sound like much fun,’ he said, with his pencil poised over the page.
This was clearly too much for the Duchess, who pointed an accusing finger at Tiffany; it trembled with anger. ‘It is as clear as the nose on your face, Officer! This … this … this witch knew we were travelling down to the city in order to buy jewellery and gifts, and clearly, I repeat clearly, conspired with her imps to rob us!’