'Er... white wine?' Agnes whispered.
'No, you don't want white wine, the red is much more... colourful,' he said, taking a glass and handing it to her. 'What is our quarry doing now... Ah, applying himself to a biscuit with a very small amount of pate on it, I see...'
Ask him his name! Perdita yelled. No, that'd be forward of me, Agnes thought. Perdita screamed, You were built forward, you stupid lump-
'Please let me introduce myself. I'm Vlad,' he said kindly. 'Oh, now he's... yes, he's about to pounce on. .. yes, a prawn vol-au-vent. Prawns up here, eh? King Verence has spared no expense, has he?'
'He had them brought up on ice all the way from Genua,' Agnes mumbled.
'They do very good seafood there, I believe.'
'Never been,' Agnes mumbled. Inside her head Perdita lay down and cried.
'Maybe we could visit it one day, Agnes,' said Vlad.
The blush was at Agnes's neck.
'It's very hot in here, don't you think?' said Vlad.
'It's the fire,' said Agnes gratefully. 'It's over there,' she added, nodding to where quite a large amount of a tree was burning in the hall's enormous fireplace and could only have been missed by a man with a bucket on his head.
'My sister and I have-' Vlad began.
'Excuse me, Miss Nitt?'
'What is it, Shawn?' Drop dead, Shawn Ogg, said Perdita.
'Mum says you're to come at once, miss. She's down in the yard. She says it's important.'
'It always is,' said Agnes. She gave Vlad a quick smile. 'Excuse me, I have to go and help an old lady.'
'I'm sure we'll meet again, Agnes,' said Vlad.
'Oh, er... thank you.'
She hurried out and was halfway down the steps before she remembered she hadn't told him her name.
Two steps further she thought: well, he could have asked someone.
Two steps after that Perdita said: Why would he ask anyone your name?
Agnes cursed the fact that she had grown up with an invisible enemy.
'Come and look at this!' hissed Nanny, grabbing her by the arm as she reached the courtyard. She was dragged out to the carriages parked near the stables. Nanny waved a finger to the door of the nearest one.
'See that?' she said.
'It looks very impressive,' said Agnes.
'See the crest?'
'Looks like... a couple of black and white
birds. Magpies, aren't they?'
'Yeah, but look at the writin',' said Nanny Ogg, with that dark relish old ladies reserve for nastily portentous things.
'Carpe Jugulum,' read Agnes aloud. 'That's... well, Carpe Diem is "Seize the Day", so this means-'