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The One Question

A bit nervous, Captain Carrot Ironfounderson of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch stood in front of a door. Slowly he raised a hand to knock, but before he could do so, it was opened.

"Hello, Captain Carrot. I'm fine, thank you, and you?"

"Hello, Mrs Cake. How are you?", Carrot asked and waited for an answer, but then he noticed that he had already got it.

"Oh, er, I'm fine, too, thank you. Er, is Angua in her room?"

"Yes, she is. I believe you know the way?"

"Yes, thank you."

It was strange, but Mrs Cake was almost the only thing that made Carrot really nervous. Mrs Cake made everyone nervous. It's hard to talk to someone who tends to answering questions before they're asked.

He went past Mrs Cake and up some stairs to his girlfriend's room.

Some minutes later, they both came down again. Angua brought Carrot to the door and they said goodbye. Then Angua went into the kitchen. She knew Mrs Cake would want to know why Carrot had been here.

"Oh, dear, that's a pity."

"He didn't propose. Only wanted to know if I was going to join him for the new dwarf bread exhibition."

"Oh, I think you could."

"Maybe it's better that way. I couldn't say yes anyway."

She paused. To her, the hard thing about talking to Mrs Cake was not that she answered questions before they were asked. You got used to that. The really hard thing was asking the question when it was already answered.

"I think living with him would even be easier if he'd mind about me being a werewolf. Not much, I mean, but a little bit. But the only thing he minds about is that everybody else minds."

"But that's good!"

"No! It's not normal! At the moment, no one minds that he minds that they mind, but I don't know how long it will take until they do. It would be better for him if he wasn't going out with me!"

"Angua, dear, I think you're exaggerating a bit. There really is nothing bad about all this. People will always like Carrot, because there's no way you can't like him. And yes, they probably would talk, but that's just what they always do."

Angua sighed. That would have been the next thing to say, but now there was no point in doing so. So she simply said nothing.

"I think one day he'll ask you. And then you should say yes. It's the best you could do. You'd always regret it if you didn't."

"Maybe you're right."

There was a knock at the door.

"Would you please be so kind…", Mrs Cake said.

Angua nodded. When she opened the door, a very nervous Carrot stood outside.

"Can…er…"

He cleared his throat.

"Can I have a word with you, please?"