I realise we need some context here. I was going to summarise it, but the context for this is only a couple of hundred words long, so get ready either for some scrummy world building or to scroll.
Harriet, the Halfling girl who met them earlier, was still at Reception. The thick red book detailing room numbers and payments was closed on the desk next to her, and the room was almost completely quiet. Occasionally, muffled footsteps sounded from the floor above as people moved around their rooms.
She could have finished her shift half an hour ago. Once it hit eleven, on a quiet night, she knew she was free to close up and leave the Inn to take care of itself until morning. But she stayed, fidgeting with her plaits and drumming her fingers on the table.
She was waiting for someone.
That wizard girl, Techo, who had come in earlier and booked a room with her friends but left before even looking at the room. She had mentioned going out to find a girl to – … Harriet’s cheeks coloured as she remembered how explicitly she had put it.
Harriet had pulled Techo aside quietly before Techo left, and gave her warning that speaking so openly about that sort of thing might not be taken kindly to in Plinton. It was a sleepy, conservative-minded sort of village. But Techo had gone to try her luck nevertheless.
Harriet had been sure she would have been back before long, but a couple of hours had passed and still no sign of her. In truth, she had been hoping to catch her on her return. Techo needed a bed for the night, she was out looking for girls… and she was very pretty.
I’ve never done anything so forward in my life, let alone with another girl, Harriet thought to herself. How would I even start the conversation? I’ll probably get nervous and bail out – and that’s even if she comes back tonight.
Am I that type?
Harriet let herself daydream about Techo for a moment, about what might happen if they did go back to Harriet’s room together, and it became immediately clear by how quickly she flustered that she was that type, whatever that meant.
Would I – would I be any good at it? She must have a lot of experience, talking so confidently like that. Perhaps she’d laugh at me. She didn’t seem like the type to laugh, though.
Where on earth is she finding all these girls to … sleep with?
Harriet looked behind her and checked the clock on the wall. It was midnight: time to give up. If Techo had managed to find a liberal-minded girl in Plinton-on-the-Plain, then kudos, Harriet thought.
She readied herself to hop down from her high stool, but lingered for one second longer.
The sudden sound of the Inn door opening made her jump.
SEASIDE ILLUSTRATION 