Witches Abroad (Discworld 12)

'Don't tell me,' said Granny. 'I bet there was a will leaving everything to this Duc. I bet the ink was still wet.'

'How did you know that?' said Airs Gogol.

'Stands to reason,' said Granny loftily.

'The Baron had a young daughter,' said Mrs Gogol.

'She'd be still alive, I reckon,' said Granny.

'You surely know a lot of things, lady,' said Airs Gogol. 'Why'd you think that, then?'

'Well . . .' said Granny. She was about to say: because I know how the stories work. But Nanny Ogg interrupted.

'If this Baron was as great as you say, he must have had a lot of friends in the city, right?' she said.

'That is so. The people liked him.'

'Well, if I was a Duc with no more claim on things than a smudgy will and a little bottle of ink with the cork still out, I'd be lookin' for any chance to make things a bit more official,' said Nanny. 'Marryin' the real heir'd be favourite. He could thumb his nose at everyone, then. I bet she don't know who she really is, eh?'

'That's right,' said Mrs Gogol. 'The Duc's got friends, too. Or keepers, maybe. Not people you'd want to cross. They've brought her up, and they don't let her out much.'

The witches sat in silence for a while.

Granny thought: no. That's not quite right. That's how it'd appear in a history book. But that's not the story.

Then Granny said,' 'Scuse me, Mrs Gogol, but where do you come in all this? No offence, but I reckon that out here in the swamp it'd be all the same whoever was doing the rulin'.'

For the first time since they'd met her, Mrs Gogol looked momentarily uneasy.

'The Baron was ... a friend of mine,' she said.

'Ah,' said Granny understandingly.

'He wasn't keen on zombies, mark you. He said he thought the dead should be allowed their rest. But he never insisted. Whereas this new one . . .'

'Not keen on the Interestin" Arts?' said Nanny.

'Oh, I reckon he is,' said Granny. 'He'd have to be. Not your magic, maybe, but I bet he's got a lot of magic around him.'

'Why d'you say that, lady?' said Mrs Gogol.

'Well,' said Nanny, 'I can see that you, being a lady o' spirit, wouldn't put up with this if you didn't have to. There's lots of ways to sort matters out, I 'spect. I 'spect, if you dint like someone, their legs might unexpectedly drop off, or they might find mysterious snakes in their boots ..."

'Alleygators under their bed,' suggested Granny.

'Yes. He's got protection,' said Mrs Gogol.

'Ah.'

'Powerful magic.'

'More powerful'n you?' said Granny.

There was a long and difficult pause.

'Yes.'

'Ah.'