[Amanaduial the archer]

"What about you, Buttercup? Let's have a song from you!" Aman called out over the sound of the ground, grinning at the hobbit. Buttercup whirled around to glare at the Innkeeper where she leant on the bar, but Aman simply winked at her. "Ah, g'on, Buttercup!"

The crowd soon picked it up. "She sings?"
"Aye, she sings. A fair sweet voice, Miss Buttercup Brownlock..."
"Let's hear a pretty song from a pretty hobbit lass - go on, Buttercup!"

The hobbit server cast a despairing look at Aman and her eyes flicked downwards as she inclined her head minutely towards the step below her. Aman frowned slightly in askance, and in reply Buttercup mouthed a single word. Zimzi.

Aman raised her eyebrows and turned to the crowd, straightening and holding up her hands as she came around to the other side of the bar until they fell quiet, the ready crowd ready for some event. "Hey, hey, all of you - 'fraid Miss Buttercup won't be singing then..."

There was a great 'awww!' from the crowd and laughter, along with occasional whoops of encouragement. Aman paused, catching the eager eye of her victim, then continued, and held the crowd in her steady grasp for a moment longer, a ringmaster of the highest degree. "...but don't forget, she isn't the only one in the Green Dragon who can beat out a fine tune."

"What, you'll be singing for us, Mistress Aman?"
"Well, that's one thing Pio never graced us with!" More laughter followed and Aman grinned and laughed with them, shaking her head.

"Not me! Why, have all of ye forgotten one of the fairest voices to this side of the Shire? For shame, all of y'!" Turning, she gave Ruby a boost onto one of the tables. "Ladies and gents, I present to you, Miss Ruby Brown!"

The clapping and sprinkled whoops from the crowd doubled and someone with a fiddle was jostled forward. After hasty whispered conversation with the fiddler, Ruby nodded, satisfied, and began to clap out a beat for the crowd, and Aman noticed the number of eyes she was deliberately catching in the crowd and the shameful amount of winks she was sprinkling over them - Cook would have her guts for garters if she could see! As the fiddler, a round face, basful looking hobbit tween took up his place next to Ruby and, readying the rather battered and patched darkwood violin, he began to play tentatively the first few bars of the song, the crowd sounded their approval again. The fiddler paused, then started up again with more conviction.

With all eyes on the musicians in the centre of the room now, Aman was safely out of the spotlight and she took a curved route around the side of the room to the stairs where Buttercup had sat down beside Zimzi, her little face creased anxiously. Aman folded her skirts up and took a seat on a few steps below, looking up at Zimzi as she reached out a hand towards the woman's where it lay limply in her lap. "Now, what's the matter, darlin'?" The woman's glazed, sad expression worried Aman and she rubbed the other's hand gently. "Zimzi?"

"Miz Aman?"

Aman turned at the voice to see Tom Cotton standing behind her unsurely. When he noticed properly that she was not alone, and took in Buttercup's worried expression, he flushed. "Oh...oh, s-sorry, I'll...I didn't realise you were busy, I was just wondering about...sorry, I'll go-"

"No, Mr Cotton, it's ok. One moment, please." She turned back to Zimzi and looked concerned into the woman's eyes again, then glanced at Buttercup and nodded approvingly. Standing, she straightened her skirts and came down to Tom, beckoning him over to the bar.

"You'll be wanting a room for the night, Mr Cotton? Aye, well, I think I may have something else to offer you..." Ducking behind the bar, Aman turned and straightened up, looking Tom up and down again as she withdrew the logbook from underneath the bar. Laying the thick, leather bound ledger carefully on the bar, she she leant forward onto the bar to be more at his level. "Tom, you said you had been looking for work as a gardner recently, and Uien was impressed with your knowledge - and she is someone who knows. And, well, we haven't had a steady gardener for some months now, although there is much that can be done with the Inn garden, so I was wondering - what would you say to becoming gardener at the Green Dragon Inn?"