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Cela was startled by the sound of shouting coming from the Common Room, enough so that she nearly dropped the knife she was using to cut another slice of pie at Dick's request. Normally she would not have become involved in such arguments; Dick, she supposed, was quite capable of handling unruly patrons himself. But when the second shouting voice she heard belonged to Dick, she knew that there was trouble and dashed out into the Common Room.
"Now none of this!" she began to declare, but realized that Dick's flare of temper, at least, had faded, although his vest was dripping with ale. The Dwarf in front of him, however, was still red-faced and heaving, and it was he that Cela addressed as she came out and stood by Dick, lightly resting her hand on his shoulder as if to further calm him. "Now don't you go talking that way about Master Dick! His is a perfectly respectable inn, and I'm sure there's some misunderstanding. What's this about? A ring, I heard? A small item, then, and one easily misplaced. I'm sure this is all simply a misunderstanding."
For all her small stature, Cela was an imposing figure when she wanted to be, and as she made her closing point, she realized that she had never set down the knife she had been using to cut the pie and had been shaking it about in the air just as she had earlier used her spoon to scold Tollers. "Now, there'll be no more raised voices in here - I'm assuming you are all quite capable of behaving like gentlemen?"
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