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[kitchen_maid]

When Amy comes into the bar this evening, she is carrying what are, if one wants to be technical, two marketing baskets -- the sort of sturdy, deep, oblong baskets intended for carrying home bread and cheese and vegetables from the market in Amber

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[bannion_sight]

"Amy, hello--"

Kim is beaming as she crosses the room.

"It's been a long time."

[kitchen_maid]

"Ages and ages," Amy says. "Kim.

"However have you been?"

[bannion_sight]

"Fairly well, all things considered," Kim tells her.

"How about you? And--"

She glances down at the baskets.

"-- whoever your friends are, too?"

[kitchen_maid]

"My sons," Amy says. "Laurence and Caspian. They were a month old last week.

"I'm very well."

[bannion_sight]

"Congratulations," Kim tells her, and if there's something briefly wistful in the glance she turns on the twins, it's gone quickly.

"I'm glad to hear it -- and to meet your newest kids, too."

[kitchen_maid]

"Perry and I have four now," she says, "which is still sinking in, really."

When she met Kim, she was pregnant with Susan.

"Susan will be four this spring, and Merriman three next year."

[bannion_sight]

"... four?"

She looks as startled as she sounds; even more so when she echoes,

"Merriman?"

[kitchen_maid]

"My oldest son. We generally call him Merry, since Merriman is a lot of name for a small boy."

And a lot to live up to, really.

[bannion_sight]

Kim blinks.

"Is he, um, named after anyone in particular?"

[kitchen_maid]

"He's named for Professor Lyon," Amy says.

Among other people. Amy's children have a lot of namesakes.

[bannion_sight]

"Oh," she says; almost blankly.

"Um, we've met, I think."

[kitchen_maid]

"He's a good friend," Amy says.

"I suspect you'd remember him, if you'd met. Dignified, intelligent, capable.

"And he has very memorable eyebrows."

[bannion_sight]

"... yeah, we've met," Kim admits. "You're right, he's pretty unforgettable."

For many, many reasons.

[kitchen_maid]

"He disenchanged my brother once," Amy says, easily, but with some weight behind the words.

[bannion_sight]

"He did?"

Clear gray eyes are filled with concern and not a little curiosity.

[kitchen_maid]

"Some years ago, before I was married, even. That's how I met Professor Lyon.

"There was a woman named Blodwen Rowlands, who cast a spell on a number of people in the bar. And Professor Lyon and Tom Riddle broke the one she cast on Caspian."

In the snow. When Amy didn't have her cloak.