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Peggy Powler & The Missing Children.
#4
The clock on the mantle-piece ticked it's hypnotic tattoo that only those with consumption and the twitching ears of a
midnight mouse can fully appreciate. The steady mocking cadence of man-made time told Peggy Powler of many
things that would usually go amiss to a regular visitor to the cottage.

The Witch in the crumpled-crowned, wide-rimmed hat and grubby green poncho peered at the ledge above the fire
and searched for more clues to why she'd felt drawn to this home. Peggy breathed slowly through her nose and adjusted
the strap of the large bag on her shoulder.

Glancing towards the kitchen where Mary Bretton was busy making a pot of tea, Peggy knew not to release the burden until
asked to. Since her days at the Carnival with her Mother, the almost-five-foot woman had kept to the code of the Spellbinders
and this late-Summer's evening would be no exception.

'Tick-tock' the clock offered and almost hid the small sound on the stairs, but Peggy caught it and pulling her eyes from the
ornaments on the mantle-piece, she also estimated the owner of the creak was light. Possibly a child.

The thatched house held two rooms downstairs and the wooden stairs divided them. Ash and lime plaster coated the walls
behind the many fading hand-stitched tapestries, well-worn corn dollies and a sprig of dried lavender.
Above the bare-footed woman who was more used to being outside than enjoying the warmth of a hearth fire, thick wooden
beams held an off-white and slightly spider-webbed ceiling.

"Would yer' take of some food, Miss Powler?" Mary called from the kitchen and Peggy's focus on who the listener on the stairs
may have been was broken for a moment. But dismissing the notion that whoever made the sound could be a nosy Elf or irked
Brownie, she only answered when she had stepped closer to the stairwell.

"Nay, thank you Ma'am..." Peggy said easily "...But iff'n yer' child is still awake, might be a slice of honey-bread would help her
sleep?" the smiling Fee added. This time the slight creak was of someone turning on the stairs to leave.

Peggy placed a dirt-smudged foot onto the clippy-rug in the corridor where both rooms and the stairs met and slowing turned her
head to see into the upstairs shadows. The small dark shape stared back, but remained a statue.

"It's said that children who wander at this hour are changelings who were born on the midnight..." the soft voice from beneath the
large hat commented. "...Could the gloom on these steps be such a creature?"
For the second time this evening, Kittie-the-shadow held her breath.

"You're supposed to be in bed, young lady..." Kittie's mother called from the little kitchen and closing the space to where her guest
was peering up the stairs, she added "...and yer've had yer' supper"

The mousy-haired woman with the wooden tray winked at the Witch from Underhill and continued her journey into the place she called
the sitting-room with a tray of hot tea and her Grandmother's finest china crockery.

Kittie waited a whole minute before she descended the stairs with her mouse feet and peeked into the room. There near the fire, the
small woman that had walked the summer's eve smiled at the girl she had seen watching her trek.

"The night's majick calls to yer' bones, little-one?" Peggy said softly and receiving a timid nod from the little intruder with the well-brushed
hair, the Witch did her party-trick with her hat. Placing a thumb into her mouth, Peggy knew that this act was always an ice-breaker and
many times, it had the ability to put people at ease.

The sorceress' eyes never left the small girl in the too-large night-dress as she puffed her cheeks and blew onto her thumb. The hat shuffled
on the Witch's head as if woken from a long slumber and then like wavering flower finding the spring sun, it rose until it added another
foot-and-a-half of height to the woman from Underhill.

"Abracadabra" Peggy whispered from under it's brim and enjoyed the look of awe from the girl with the beautiful blue eyes.
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe. 


Messages In This Thread
Peggy Powler & The Missing Children. - by BIAD - 04-16-2021, 02:34 PM
RE: Peggy Powler & The Missing Children. - by BIAD - 04-17-2021, 10:27 AM

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