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Show 57 Chapter 9 Gast was waiting just inside the East Gate. "Here you are, Geist," he remarked when he saw me. "Did you have a pleasant day?" "No," I answered truthfully, but he didn't pay any attention. "Hilde is waiting for you at the shop with a bowl of soup," he said. "You must eat before the merrymaking begins." So he had been with Hilde, I might have guessed. And probably with the twins too. "What did you do while I was gone, Gast?" I asked him. "I gathered all the children and we went to each house. I showed them how to poke into the rat holes to find any nests of baby rats just waiting to grow up. The ones we found, vie killed. Then we sealed all the holes with clay." He threw a sidelong glance at me. "I didn't tell you beforehand because I didn't think you would want to take part in it. It seems you have little stomach for extermination." When I didn't answer but hung my head sullenly, he said, "Hilde wants to see you about something else beside the soup. Go to her now, and afterward meet me in the square." I sighed, then turned my steps toward the bakery, not looking back at him. It seemed I was always doing what Gast told me to do. "Oh Geist, I've been waiting and waiting," Hilde said in her breathy voice when I walked through the doorway. "Here, eat this soup quickly and then come outside before the light begins to fade." |