Jenny: And Back Again

The Guttersnipe dropped the thoughts and turned, step lightening. "You know him, then? I thought you might. Everyone does. It was Vortigern who took me. It was really all freakish chance, if you can call it that. I got pulled away in the press, otherwise my Lord Ambrosius and Artos would never have let it happen. So. Here I am. And here we are. There - "

She pointed across the intervening pasture and the tree-hanger to the sprawling villa on the opposite hill. It was almost pretty in the fading light, except that it was hateful to her. The stones were pinkish, the trees nearly black on their eastward sides. It came to her then that the day had gone by and that she was very tired. She would be happy to shed her dusty dress and crawl into her bed.

"You may have heard of Vortigern..."