Bessie prepared herself to resist this onslaught, though scarcely knowing how. But a dark shape shot out of the darkness ahead of her — two figures, diminutive but ferocious. Drig and Derri fell upon one of the two goblins, and Bessie bestowed her most terrible smile upon the second as she took up a position before Lady Thayer. ‘Ha! I wish you joy of yer attempt!’
Lady Thayer stepped out from behind Bessie. ‘I think not,’ she said to the goblin, cool and unruffled. The goblin struggled viciously, but it could not outmatch the two ladies. With quick efficiency, they disabused the creature of its notions of offering them any harm whatsoever.
‘The ladies are ours,’ called Sophy, and she sallied forth to engage the two Ayliri women, with Mrs. Aylfendeane and Mrs. Grey in her wake.
Mr. Aylfe
