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With which Dimity made her way to the settee For a shortwhere the Bumbersnoot lump moved Then she threw her head back and shrieked at the top of her lungs "Rat! Eeeeeek!" With which she hopped up onto the settee, upending theonto the floor and on top of poor Buet it! Eeeeeee!"

Without even seeing the alleged rat theirls in that corner of the rooot up on top of it, screa on the cushier furniture and with longer skirts One or two fell over; a few pushed others off in order to gain the high ground This caused more shrieks Still others cried out in sy the hysteria The chaos was instant and intense With all attention on Di the door behind her

After a year and a half of ghosting about a finishing school for intelligencers, a place riddled with tracks and malevolent mechanicals of all kinds, she found her own house easy by comparison Most of the huuests and dressed gentle, under orders, none of them equipped with proxied here; why should it matter that she was out and about?

Her parents and sundry older siblings were already at the ball Petunia was upstairs screa at Bumbersnoot, so there was only the twins to worry about Theyh the house and out into the garden without attracting attention Or perhaps she had learned ht at Madeair," said Pillover, without the courtesy of a greeting He was slouching on a rail of the gazebo, plucking dolefully at a ca soht"

"I’m the best and most trustworthy option of a bad lot, I suppose"

Sophronia held out her hand

Pillover shook his head "Naw, it caerous to keep written, sca about tocomplete privacy A few stable hands walked toward the front of the house fro to arrive They were out of earshot Above thehy nested comfortably Someone could hide in there, she supposed Quickly she pulled out her letter opener and jabbed through the wicker of the gondola No one screah Pillover watched her do this with ust

Sophronia jumped back down and nodded at him to continue She stashed her letter opener

Pillover said, "Sidheag says her olves are in trouble Kingair Pack has been disgraced" Pillover looked as if he had sed so to murder Queen Victoria Lord Maccon has abandoned the Lord Woolsey to take over the pack near London"

"Oh, oodness!" said Sophronia "Treason?"

"Attempted treason"

"And Alpha abandoner, but it put everyone at risk A olf pack without an Alpha could be very dangerous Quickly, she calculated the next full ht ’round the corner; without an Alpha, the pack’s ers are ready"

Pillover continued, "Sidheag has gone to London to intercept Lord Maccon, try to turn hiair Pack in order, especially now Seems his Beta planned it all and Lord Maccon killed hiair had no Alpha and no Beta? Sophronia paled She’d never heard of such a thing in the whole history of openly accepted supernaturals Who is controlling the pack? They could run ; this would account for her upset Her one and only family was fractured beyond all possible repair This was the olf version of those unspeakable divorces so popular on the Continent! "Poor Sidheag! What are we to do?"

Pillover shrugged, sublimely unconcerned Or perhaps he always expected bad news and thus was never surprised by it "I’er"

Further discussion was stopped by a whip crack of a cry "Ho there, younghis elbow on the gazebo railing "Ouch!"