Now Gilly was not in the habit of frequenting the Green Dragon, so upon entering she thought she had stepped into some more exotic place like Bree. Flutes playing…so many strange folk had been passing through lately! What their business was in the Shire she just couldn’t figure, but Benia was another matter. True, she looked the stranger’s part, but she had a noble heart, as good as the best of hobbits. And her family had paid for their principles, more dearly than Gilly cared to recollect. They were a good lot, even if they were decidedly different.
So what is all this silly nervousness Gilly? This panic? She lectured herself. Do what you’d come for, you goose, before you work yourself into a jabbering fool, as you’re like to do soon enough!
The room was crowded as the hobbit worked her way around trying to discover which person might possibly be Benia. A cursory inventory of the patrons showed two likely candidates, a slight dark haired woman seated in a group to one side and a veiled one who somehow seemed solitary despite the crowd round her. Although the former looked more like the girl Gilly remembered, but she knew it was the later she sought. The evident reserve betrayed her history and lineage. And it was for her that Gilly made, ernstly hoping that no evil would befall as a result.
[ May 23, 2003: Message edited by: Hilde Bracegirdle ]
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