Sat Aug 09, 2003 3:10 am
The last thing that Treadwell remembers with any clarity is grabbing up a bottle of wine at Suede's house and guzzling down the contents. It had been some darn good wine.
On waking, he might remember other moments: staggering into the inn in a navy blue dress meant for his beloved Emlyn, his hot-headed reaction to finding out Suede had put him in that dress, and his crashing to the floor belly-first in a lunge for the trickster of a tailor. He might recall the confused town crier's call down to him of "Counc'lor Tread'ell?" on his way home and his own string of expletives grumbled to the air. He might even remember the giggling of orphaned children as they scampered away to their holes.
But, as of about six a.m. this morning, Treadwell is still passed out on his bed at Emlyn's place and still garbed in her dress, which somehow made it through the night without getting torn, stretched too much, and without having something spilled on it. How will Emlyn take to her Aloisius wearing a dress because he'd been made drunk by a bottle of drugged wine? More importantly, how will Myrken? The town crier from earlier has sent out the sentiment of "Counc'lor Tread'ell seen last night--drunk off 'is arse, swelled up, an' in a drayyyyyesssssssss!"