37

Some minutes later you find yourself in a curious joint piece with him, where you are (theoretically) writing a sonnet together, each of you improvising half of an A-B-B-A quatrain in turn. Baggage turned to Lady Gramercy to seek permission to start the bit, and the novelty of it so enthused the crowd that you had no choice but to assent.

Baggage flutters his eyes and sighs as he gives you your raw material to rhyme:

"And sighed I to my lover, still a-bed ,

'Dear one, do not weep while I'm away…'"

You feel very fortunate that you had some advance knowledge of the Northern Duel of Fools from Lord Bisqueath, since it enabled you to practice your skills in this particular style of collaborative poem beforehand. You shudder to think how you might have fared without the chance to prepare.