Wyrd Sisters

'We don't, do we?' said Granny, calmly. 'Naturally we'd like to hear how he gets along. You could send us letters and suchlike. But it would not be a good idea to talk about all this after you've left, do you see? For the sake of the child.'

Mrs Vitoller looked at the two old women.

'There's something else here, isn't there?' she said. 'Something big behind all this?'

Granny hesitated, and then nodded.

'But it would do us no good at all to know it?'

Another nod.

Granny stood up as several actors came in, breaking the spell. Actors had a habit of filling all the space around them.

'I have other things to see to,' she said. 'Please excuse me.'

'What's his name?' said Vitoller.

'Tom,' said Granny, hardly hesitating.

'John,' said Nanny. The two witches exchanged glances. Granny won.

'Tom John,' she said firmly, and swept out.

She met a breathless Magrat outside the door.

'I found a box,' she said. 'It had all the crowns and things in. So I put it in, like you said, right underneath everything.'

'Good,' said Granny.

'Our crown looked really tatty compared to the others!'

'It just goes to show, doesn't it,' said Granny. 'Did anyone see you?'

'No, everyone was too busy, but—' Magrat hesitated, and blushed.

'Out with it, girl.'

'Just after that a man came up and pinched my bottom.' Magrat went a deep crimson and slapped her hand over her mouth.

'Did he?' said Granny. 'And then what?'

'And then, and then—'

'Yes?'

'He said, he said—'

'What did he say?'

'He said, 'Hallo, my lovely, what are you doing tonight?' '

Granny ruminated on this for a while and then she said, 'Old Goodie Whemper, she didn't get out and about much, did she?'

'It was her leg, you know,' said Magrat.

'But she taught you all the midwifery and everything?'

'Oh, yes, that,' said Magrat. 'I done lots.'

'But—' Granny hesitated, groping her way across unfamiliar territory – 'she never talked