Page 8 of 8
Chapter V
When, after a couple of weeks, and true to her word, Agnes came to visit she was appalled at how Moo was being mistreated.
"How can you starve her in this way?!" she demanded of Tiffany. It was a subject very close to her heart.
"I can't feed her any more than she'll eat," said Tiffany, "and she eats more than Nanny."
"Round things," said Agnes who, however much she tried, was incapable of swearing.
Yet when they sat down to lunch she saw the truth of the words. There was a rabbit-pie and potatoes and carrots and peas. Agnes noticed that she ate almost half of everything and Moo ate most of the rest, while Tiffany ate virtually nothing. Though she then brought out a beef-pie, with parsnips and onions and cabbage, that all disappeared too, even though Tiffany ate very little and Agnes ate less than half. While Moo was doing the washing-up she apologised.
"I'm sorry that I misjudged you. She must be costing you a fortune."
Witches were very well rewarded for their services, especially the medical ones. People paid them in: food, drink, clothes, gardening, house-repairs… They even sometimes paid them in money, but only if they had nothing better to offer.
"It's just that she's so stick-thin."
"Hard to believe, isn't it?" Tiffany agreed.
"Where does she put it? She eats as much as I do and she's about the size of my arm."
"Gods, she's about the size of my arm!"
"Do you want to lose the only friend you have?" scowled Agnes.
"Ok, sorry, it's just difficult to see how so much food can go into something so tiny without it growing any larger."
Agnes had blamed her own size on everything from enormous bones to slothful metabolism, but the truth was she ate too much, and she ate too much because she loved food. She'd always rather be fat than hungry. But to be able to eat like Moo and still be thin… Oh, jealousy, thy name is Agnes.
From the kitchen, where the tiny thing had been washing-up, and in spite of their lowered voices, there came another voice. Grown much more confident in just a couple of weeks it said:
"It can hear you, you know?"
"Come in, Moo," said Tiffany, with a laugh.
And in she came, still as skinny as a pipe-cleaner, but otherwise almost unrecognisable from the hopeless little girl in the playground. She was a picture in her pretty, red and white dress and matching cardy, set off by her long, ginger braids. Her big green eyes complemented her little, freckled face. But when she smiled it was like someone lighting a lamp in a cave.
"Moo, how would you like a little trip out today?"
The smile ignited: "That would be lovely, miss."
She'd often wondered what the word perky really meant, now she knew
"We're going to visit Nanny Ogg."
She'd also often wondered what it meant when people said things like "her face fell". Now she knew that too.
One of the good things about flying by broomstick was that, if there were two of you, you didn't have to talk. If you were up front then you could turn round and talk to your passenger, but if you were pillion then the wind would snatch your words away faster than you could say them. Normally when they were flying Moo only held on to Tiffany lightly; this time she clung on so tightly it almost hurt. She could even feel the vibrations of Moo talking, though whether it was to Tiffany or simply to herself she couldn't tell. Probably just as well.
Agnes was waiting for them in front of Nanny's as they landed. When they entered the cottage Nanny was sitting in the farthest corner of the sitting-room, using the fire and a single candle to make herself appear all the more mysterious and sinister. Moo tried to hide behind Tiffany's skirts.
"Cackle, cackle!" said Nanny, but she wasn't joking.
"We've brought her here, just as you asked," said Tiffany.
"I didn't arsk," Nanny corrected.
The two young witches didn't know quite what to do with themselves, or even if they were supposed to be there. But with Nanny in this mood they weren't going to leave until they were told to.
"Come 'ere, child," commanded Nanny, from the corner. Moo, of course, did as she was told and Nanny Ogg leaned ominously out of the shadows.
Now, there was the Nanny Ogg that Lancre thought it knew: the jovial, old matriarch with the crab-apple face, colourful past and huge extended family. Of course there was another Nanny Ogg that terrified daughters-in-law (and now granddaughters-in-law) had come to know and tremble before. Who was sort of related. And then there was Gytha Ogg, the wytch in the gingerbread house, who wasn't related at all. It was this one who now spoke.
"What's your name, my pretty?"
Tiffany and Agnes both felt the hairs rise on the backs of their necks, but Moo now seemed completely unafraid.
"My name is Moonlight, Nanny."
They didn't know how long they simply waited while Nanny and Moo just looked at each other. It wasn't as though it was some wild staring contest; it was more like a conversation without the talking, but with lots of smiles. In the end Agnes got bored.
"Would you like a cup of tea?"
Tiffany shrugged. "Why not?"
As Nanny appeared to be in some sort of trance they decided to go to town with the cream and sugar – though Lancre wasn't a very big town- and raid the biscuit jar too.
"Do you think they're talking to each other in some way?" asked Agnes.
"Search me," said Tiffany, "though I can't imagine what else they might be doing. I wonder what sort of berries are in this biscuit, they're lovely."
"Bilberries," said Agnes.
"How do you know?"
"Because I made them."
"Really? They're delicious. You never made any for me."
"Yes, I did," said Agnes, guiltily.
"Well, you never gave any of them to me."
"Didn't I? Then I must have given them to the poor."
"The poor seem to eat a lot of biscuits around here."
"Never mind that, do you want one of these, they look great." Agnes held up a small, golden oblong covered in sugar.
"No thank you," said Tiffany, as Agnes took a bite of her biscuit and then froze.
"Oh, Gods, it's chocolate! It's a chocolate biscuit in Lancre. Chocolate, all the way from Howandaland. Tiff, you have got to taste this…" then she paused. "I don't believe it! You made chocolate biscuits, and you gave them to Nanny rather than me?!"
The wounds were obvious on Agnes' face, but they were also clearly cut into the deepest parts of her soul:
"You vile traitor, you darkest of enemies, you…"
"No, no, you don't understand," said a flustered Tiffany, "she's an old lady and I just thought…"
Just then Nanny and Moo emerged from their trances, which was just as well for everyone.
"Right you," she said to Moo, "you get yourself outside for a bit and we'll call you when we want you.
"And you can 'ave one of these biscuits with the funny stuff in it," she added, giving Moo one of Tiffany's Chocolate Surprises.
Agnes' eyes followed it out the door as Moo, as always, did as she was told.
"Get, me a drink!" demanded Nanny. "No, not tea, you daft girl," she shouted at Agnes.
"Yes, ale'll do to start with," she said as Tiffany handed her a jug, from which she took a huge swig and then seemed to settle down.
"Now here's what I know, my chicks, and it's not much.
"Something's narsty's brewing. It's something that's always been about, it's just more of it. But there's another thing, and it's a thing like what Him said: it's growing and getting worse, like a sickness. But it's also like a thing, a big bad thing, and it's gonna get bigger and badder, and worser and worser. And I don't know how or why but I think the only way to stop it is our little Moo."
"What!?" exclaimed Agnes and Tiffany, almost simultaneously.
"Oh, come on, girls," laughed Nanny, "that little scrap of skin is more witch than the three of us together. And we're three good uns."
It was no more than confirmation of what Tiffany almost knew anyway. And if Nanny and Tiffany were that convinced, then Agnes wasn't going to gainsay them.
"So, what is this thing?" asked Tiffany.
"Sorry, dearie," said Nanny, "that's beyond my powers, but I know I won't be around to see it, if that's any help."
"Can you tell exactly when?" asked Agnes.
"No, love, it's against the rules, but we can't see that clear anyway, you know that. Not awful long, but not real soon either. Is that any help?"
"A bit, Nanny, thanks," said Tiffany.
"Now, can I see that little spark of ginger hair again? She fairly cheered me up, and I'm normally a miserable old baggage. And don't you two go agreeing neither," she laughed as they both began to nod.
Tiffany went and called Moo back in and Nanny asked her over to sit on her knee. This time it was the Nanny who was little more than a one-toothed grin in the centre of a lot of wrinkles, so Moo went. Though Tiffany suspected that she'd have gone anyway. Once she was settled on her knee Nanny began:
"Let me tell you about the time Little Aggie went to be a singer in the Opry in the Big City…"
"Oh, Gods," said Agnes, slapping her head while Tiffany giggled.
"Would you like a biscuit, my pet?"
"Yes, please, Nanny," said Moo, "could I have one of the ones with the bilberries in them?"
Agnes had a little smile to herself.
"Course you can, my chick. And then I'll tell you about Little Tiff and the Wee Free Men."
"Oh, no…" moaned Tiffany.
"And you haven't heard the last about the biscuits either," added Agnes.