However, I thought of what they’d said, those two, back in the alley—about the girl from the inn, Hildi, about how they’d give her to the Demon Huntsman instead of the Princess, if they couldn’t find her. So I thought: the Jolly Huntsman’s the next place for you, me boy—and about time too. A drop of brandy just now’d go down a treat.

That’ll do for the time being. I’ve got to hand over to someone else now, so the young person can put down her pen and have a rest.

Hildi’s Narrative continued

I had to face Ma first, of course. She wasn’t angry, which would have been bad enough, but hurt and sad, which was worse.

“Whatever did you do that for?” she said. “I was so looking forward to that little show, and you go and spoil it. I can’t understand you, Hildi. You’re as bad as Peter sometimes. I don’t know….”

And she sat down heavily by the kitchen table and mopped her eyes with her apron. She looked old suddenly, and tired, and overcome. There was nothing I could say to comfort her; and there was plenty of clearing up to be done. Old Conrad, the barman, was still in the bar, because one or two of the men who’d been in earlier were still up, swapping stories and boasts about their shooting, and there was a great litter of mugs and glasses and dirty plates that everyone else seemed to have forgotten. I felt exhausted, and worried, and friendless and hopeless and everything-else-less.

Then, just as I was setting off for the kitchen with an armful of plates and a handful of mugs, the door opened and in came Doctor Cadaverezzi’s servant, the one called Max. I looked at him in surprise, but what was more surprising was that he looked as if he expected to see me.

“Can I have a word, in private, like?” he said. Quietly, so the last fuddled drinkers in the bar shouldn’t hear.

“Come in the kitchen,” I said.

Ma had gone to bed. I put the plates and mugs down on the table and looked up to see him peering out of the back door.

“What are you doing?” I said. “There’s no one out there!”

“Can’t be too sure,” he said. “Are you going to wash the dishes?”

“If there’s any hot water,” I said.

“I’ll give you a hand. Let’s get all them plates out here and then we can talk, in private, like what I said. It’s important, else I wouldn’t ask.”