The rain stopped by mid-morning, making way to another gray and cloudy day. Bill Ferny had slept late this morning, as he did most mornings. He had slept through the rain and was still snoozing in his dirty bed at noon when the dog suddenly started barking. Ferny tossed the blanket aside and scrambled to get up on his feet, fully clothed, when the bark turned into a whimper and somebody stormed into his room through the door.
It was The Southerner, and he was not happy, Ferny could tell that right away.
”What the hell have you done?” The Southerner hissed menacingly, his face twisted even more than usual. ”What… have… you… done?”
”Calm down, mate”, Ferny said softly, trying to soothe the ugly ogre. ”I haven’t done anything. What’s happened?”
”That man of yours, the man who you put into Staddle”, The Southerner howled, pointing an accusing finger at Ferny. ”He tried to kill the hobbit this morning! A watchman intervened and skewered your idiot instead!”
”He did what?” Ferny gawped, groping his messy hair. ”Roddy? He dead? When did this happen?”
”This morning, maybe four hours ago. And yes, he bloody well is dead. If the guard hadn’t killed him I would have done it myself. And if I find out you had anything to do with…”
”Hold on!” Ferny yelped. ”I assure I had no idea that… look, Roddy wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, and sometimes he got… ideas in his head. Yeah, he could be unpredictable like that.”
”And you thought it was a good idea to give an assignment this important, this crucial to somebody not only unreliable, but a complete fool, a menace?”
”Look, you gotta work with what you got, aight? You've seen what kind of dolts I have to deal with here. It’s not like I have an army of fanatic followers at my beck and…”
”Then you should have taken care of it personally!” The Southerner snapped. ”Sharkey’s plan is now ruined, months and years of planning lost to one man’s idiocy, and I’m holding you responsible!”
”Ruined? Why would anything be ruined?”
”Do you know what happens now, Ferny? The Watch is alerted that the hobbits are in danger, there will be arrests and raids, they may put a guard on Paladin and his family…”
”The Watch!” Ferny sneered. ”The Bree Watch couldn’t find their own asshole with a torch and a map. Look, they may come banging on the doors of the usual suspects and ask the usual questions, but that’ll all come to naught. And the boys are more than capable of doing in one or two fat guards if it comes to that. Are the hobbits now back on their way to Buckland?”
”No. They are packing, but decided to continue their tour to Combe and Archet. They don’t seem to scare easily.”
”Good”, Ferny nodded, slumping down on a bench behind the table between himself and The Southerner. ”Then they don’t think there’s nothing to be scared about. An isolated incident, a raving robber gone berserk. The Watch will think the same, trust me on this. We still have plenty of time, as we don’t need to alert the boys before the hobbits are back in Bree. I will go to Combe personally to see the job through properly this time.”
The Southerner stared at Bill Ferny with his mean dark eyes glimmering with the madness that burned inside him. ”I don’t share your confidence”, he said slowly, after pondering on Ferny’s words for a moment. ”I will go to Combe. You stay right here, and make sure the team is ready to move immediately when the hobbits return. Nothing more can go wrong.”
The Southerner turned and limped out of the house, slamming the door shut behind him. Bill Ferny reached for his pipe on a shelf and sighed in relief.
