The sun finally got bored with the little melodrama regarding the daughter of Peggy Powler's long ago lover exacting revenge for
her Pa receiving a punch in the beak and began to drop behind the hills to the west. The female who suffered the younger woman's
animus now stared out at the cooling landscape that the great orange orb had left with long shadows.
Wildhorn County held a beauty of its own, especially at this time of the day. The tall cacti stood like sentinels around the stunted
canyon and the ground-hugging tumbleweed and sage brush softened the boulder-strewn sides that kept the Bowe residence
secluded.
Occasionally, the little Witch soaking in the hush would notice a movement in the undergrowth and wonder if it was coyote-wary
rabbit or even a Desert Gnome adjusting his position for a better view. Whatever it was, Peggy felt she was being watched and not
only by Sarah Bowe standing at the cabin's window.
"So she was a girlfriend back in the day?" Sarah asked with a light tone of hauteur that her own father could possibly have had a life
before her late-mother. Peering out at the small woman in the large hat and shabby poncho, Sarah selfishly mused that such a person
couldn't be someone who would catch the eye of the only man in her own life. The latter part of that thought caused a regret that she
wished not to dwell on right now.
Doctor Duckworth Bowe smiled to himself as he stirred a pot of his home-made pottage, "She's a Witch and I am..." then corrected
himself, "...was a Warlock, we walked between the same worlds together" he said with an inner-mirth. The man who had once owned
hair as dark as the shadows Peggy was now enjoying, sprinkled a sliced piece of cholla into his bubbling dish. The current subject
of this futile discussion had saved his life and by doing so, saved many others being attacked by the blight that haunted Hatton in the
Corn. Now a true Doctor of medicine with a greyer-mane, he wondered if she could do it again.
He had forsaken the majick art that the little woman outside wielded like the ladle he currently stirred with and the Dancing Dead were
threatening once more. No granulated pharmacon or herb potion will best the abomination that lies asleep in the desert, only the elixir
that Peggy holds could fix it.
...................................................
Myrddin had bowed at the girl in the large hat and introduced his apprentice before himself, the beguiling grin reappeared and Peggy
resisted it. "We could do with your help on this matter, Ms Power..." the older man confided in the strap-of-a-lass before him and gently
lead Peggy and his student away to the entrance of a tavern. "...The madness that will prowl into this ward holds an evil that I feel will
require all our hands to the tiller" he cautioned.
Myrddin then motioned towards the Inn and asked "Will you take a meal with us, Peggy?"
She'd heard his words and warning, but the teenager was more irked by her distraction caused by the handsome man standing with
the features of an intense listener next to his instructor. His name was Duckworth Bowe and he was a cad -the lass with the nice legs
thought and after showing her respect to the bewhiskered Wizard, the novice Witch sought a place where she would spend the night.
Duckworth had come to her that night in the barn and as she had threatened and later, as the dawn had threatened, they had made love.
The next day together, they had made war.
her Pa receiving a punch in the beak and began to drop behind the hills to the west. The female who suffered the younger woman's
animus now stared out at the cooling landscape that the great orange orb had left with long shadows.
Wildhorn County held a beauty of its own, especially at this time of the day. The tall cacti stood like sentinels around the stunted
canyon and the ground-hugging tumbleweed and sage brush softened the boulder-strewn sides that kept the Bowe residence
secluded.
Occasionally, the little Witch soaking in the hush would notice a movement in the undergrowth and wonder if it was coyote-wary
rabbit or even a Desert Gnome adjusting his position for a better view. Whatever it was, Peggy felt she was being watched and not
only by Sarah Bowe standing at the cabin's window.
"So she was a girlfriend back in the day?" Sarah asked with a light tone of hauteur that her own father could possibly have had a life
before her late-mother. Peering out at the small woman in the large hat and shabby poncho, Sarah selfishly mused that such a person
couldn't be someone who would catch the eye of the only man in her own life. The latter part of that thought caused a regret that she
wished not to dwell on right now.
Doctor Duckworth Bowe smiled to himself as he stirred a pot of his home-made pottage, "She's a Witch and I am..." then corrected
himself, "...was a Warlock, we walked between the same worlds together" he said with an inner-mirth. The man who had once owned
hair as dark as the shadows Peggy was now enjoying, sprinkled a sliced piece of cholla into his bubbling dish. The current subject
of this futile discussion had saved his life and by doing so, saved many others being attacked by the blight that haunted Hatton in the
Corn. Now a true Doctor of medicine with a greyer-mane, he wondered if she could do it again.
He had forsaken the majick art that the little woman outside wielded like the ladle he currently stirred with and the Dancing Dead were
threatening once more. No granulated pharmacon or herb potion will best the abomination that lies asleep in the desert, only the elixir
that Peggy holds could fix it.
...................................................
Myrddin had bowed at the girl in the large hat and introduced his apprentice before himself, the beguiling grin reappeared and Peggy
resisted it. "We could do with your help on this matter, Ms Power..." the older man confided in the strap-of-a-lass before him and gently
lead Peggy and his student away to the entrance of a tavern. "...The madness that will prowl into this ward holds an evil that I feel will
require all our hands to the tiller" he cautioned.
Myrddin then motioned towards the Inn and asked "Will you take a meal with us, Peggy?"
She'd heard his words and warning, but the teenager was more irked by her distraction caused by the handsome man standing with
the features of an intense listener next to his instructor. His name was Duckworth Bowe and he was a cad -the lass with the nice legs
thought and after showing her respect to the bewhiskered Wizard, the novice Witch sought a place where she would spend the night.
Duckworth had come to her that night in the barn and as she had threatened and later, as the dawn had threatened, they had made love.
The next day together, they had made war.
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe.