“Do you remember-”
“I have a . . . very good memory, thank you.”
"Do you ever wonder what life would have been like if
you'd said yes?" said Ridcully.
“No.”
“I suppose we'd have settled down, had children, grandchildren, that sort of thing . . .”
Granny shrugged. It was the sort of thing romantic idiots said. But there was something in the air tonight. . .
“What about the fire?” she said.
“What fire?”
"Swept through our house just after we were married.
Killed us both."
o;There's some gentry we don't want to see here,” said Granny. “I won't be happy until all this is over.”
Nanny Ogg craned to try and see over the head of a small emperor.
“Can't see Magrat around,” she said. “There's Verence talking to some other kings, but can't see our Magrat at all. Our Shawn said Millie Chillum said she was just a bag of nerves this morning.”
“All these high-born folks,” said Granny, looking around at the crowned heads. “I feel like a fish out of water.”
“Well, the way I see it, it's up to you to make your own water,” said Nanny, picking up a cold roast chicken leg from the buffet and stuffing it up a sleeve.
“Don't drink too much. We've got to keep alert, Gytha. Remember what I said. Don't let yourself get distracted-”
“That's never the delectable Mrs. Ogg, is it?”
Nanny turned.
There was no one behind her.
“Down here,” said the voice.
She looked down, into a wide grin.
“Oh, blast,” she said.
“It's me, Casanunda,” said Casanunda, who was dwarfed still further by an enormous[30] powdered wig. “You remember? We danced the night away in Genua?”
“No we didn't.”
“Well, we could have done.”
“Fancy you turning up here,” said Nanny, weakly. The thing about Casanunda, she recalled, was that the harder you slapped him down the faster he bounced back, often in an unexpected direction.
“Our stars are entwined,” said Casanunda. “We're fated for one another. I wants your body, Mrs. Ogg.”
“I'm still using it.”
And while she suspected, quite accurately, that this was an approach the world's second greatest lover used on anything that appeared to be even vaguely female, Nanny Ogg had to admit that she was flattered. She'd had many admirers in her younger days, but time had left her with a body that could only be called comfortable and a face like Mr. Grape the Happy Raisin. Long-banked fires gave off a little smoke.