It certainly was no great chore, being set loose to roam the Fair all day, stopping now and again when someone was selling a treat actually worth the money, listening to musicians and watching the snippets of free entertainment.

The Fair kept going until midnight at night too—but there would be no chandler’s apprentices here after dark, and she would be conspicuous—and worse. After sunset, an unaccompanied female of any age could be presumed to be available for whatever a man wanted from her. Boys too. She knew this because Mags believed in telling his children about things they were old enough to be affected by so that they weren’t blindsided by them. Not that the Fair at night was dangerous, if you kept your wits about you. It could be quite fun, in fact, with shows taking advantage of the darkness to use lighting effects and one of the large entertainment tents hosting a nightly masked ball. But it was no place for anyone like Abi unless she was openly accompanied by Perry. Night was the time Mags or his adult agents would move through the pathways of the Fair.

Most likely it will be Papa’s agents. He’s got no need to be down here unless they find something interesting, and the fellows from the pawn shop would probably enjoy doing what I’m doing now as much as I am.

So far she had turned up absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, but it was a lot of fun looking. The people who placed booths had done a very cunning thing; they’d mixed everything up. So if, say, you were looking for glass beads, you would have to wander the entire grounds to find all of the vendors. Rather than being able to compare stocks and prices easily, this made it much more difficult. And that encouraged people to buy as soon as they found something like what they were looking for, even if the ideal item was at another booth. Because you never knew, and when you got back to the other vendor, what you wanted might be gone.

It was good for the food vendors too. Having food vendors mixed throughout the Fair meant that if a food had a tasty aroma, that smell wouldn’t get trampled on by another food-vendor’s wares. And encountering a good scent out of nowhere made people hungry, and inclined to buy.

It even had that effect on Abi, and she knew she was being manipulated!