'If I'd ever what?' said Granny Weatherwax, quietly.
They stared at one another in shocked silence. They could both feel it, the tension creeping into their bodies from the ground itself, the hot, aching feeling that they'd started something they must finish, no matter what.
'I knew you when you were a gel,' said Nanny sullenly. 'Stuck-up, you were.'
'At least I spent most of the time upright,' said Granny. 'Disgustin', that was. Everyone thought so.'
'How would you know?' snapped Nanny.
'You were the talk of the whole village,' said Granny.
'And you were, too! They called you the Ice Maiden. Never knew that, did you?' sneered Nanny.
'I wouldn't sully my lips by sayin' what they called you,' shouted Granny.
'Oh yes?' shrieked Nanny. 'Well, let me tell you, my good woman—'
'Don't you dare talk to me in that tone of voice! I'm not anyone's good woman—'
'Right!'
There was another silence while they stared at one another, nose to nose, but this silence was a whole quantum level of animosity higher than the last one; you could have roasted a turkey in the heat of this silence. There was no more shouting. Things had got far too bad for shouting. Now the voices came in low and full of menace.
'I should have known better than to listen to Magrat,' growled Granny. 'This coven business is ridiculous. It attracts entirely the wrong sort of people.'
'I'm very glad we had this little talk,' hissed Nanny Ogg. 'Cleared the air.'
She looked down.
'And you're in my territory, madam.'
'Madam!'
Thunder rolled in the distance. The permanent Lancre storm, after a trip through the foothills, had drifted back towards the mountains for a one-night stand. The last rays of sunset shone livid through the clouds, and fat drops of water began to thud on the witches' pointed hats.
'I really don't have time for all this,' snapped Granny, trembling. 'I have far more important things to do.'
'And me,' said Nanny.
'Good night to you.'
'And you.'
They turned their backs on one another and strode away into the downpour.
The midnight rain drummed on Magrat's curtained windows as she thumbed her way purposefully through Goodie Whemper's books of what, for want of any better word, could be called natural magic.
The old woman had been a great collector of such things and, most unusually, had written them down; witches didn't normally have much use for literacy. But book after book was filled with tiny, meticulous handwriting detailing the results of patient experiments in applied magic. Goodie Whemper had, in fact, been a research witch.[10]
ps,' he said, and turned to run for it.
'Don't—' Magrat began, but the Fool was already pounding down the forest path that led back to the castle.
Magrat stood and stared at the wilting posy in her hands. She ran her fingers through her hair and a shower of wilted petals fell out.
She felt that an important moment had been allowed to slip out of her grasp as fast as a greased pig in a narrow passageway.
She felt an overpowering urge to curse. She knew a great many curses. Goodie Whemper had been really imaginative in that department; even the creatures of the forest used to go past her cottage at a dead run.