Alternative Fact #2 from ‘Blackwood’

Mab was so pleased to see Silas that she grabbed his hands and told him the story at great speed.

“Otto asked me to marry him when I told him I didn’t want him to die. Now I think he is dead because he hasn’t come back. The crows are everywhere this morning, and my hair is growing, but nothing matters anymore and I may as well just lie down in front of the Lord of Blackwood’s carriage [1].”

“Right,” said Silas. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

[1] A familiar saying in Blackwood. The Bayard’s (the noble line that has ruled Blackwood since the Conqueror) means of transport was designed to carry eight people in luxury and was pulled by no less than fourteen horses. Yet it was only used on two occasions – once when King Edward III visited and was taken on a tour of the estate, and another time for the funeral of the legendary ‘Pig-Boy’. Despite being used little, it still managed to run a man down and kill him. That man had been John Swift, aged 88, and the accident had also inspired the Blackwood saying: ‘about as fast as John Swift’, meaning not very fast at all.