As someone who rarely got to enjoy parties for what they were, Daff wondered what that was like. She wasn't sure the last time she'd gone to a party and simply enjoyed herself. She was always on the other side, setting up, taking care of the flowers or decorations; or like today a little bit of everything, helping her mother and Betty get everything in place and ready to go. She'd hardly had time to say hi to Elias before he'd gotten pulled in to help as well.

Daff barely kept her expression neutral as Mr. Greengrass mentioned Noble. She'd seen him, because of course she had. No matter how much time or distance separated them, she could pick him out of a crowd in an instant. It was silly of her to think she could avoid him, not when he lived in her hometown and they hosted events so often, but she supposed they had never been very good at staying away purposefully, even now. It was easy to keep him in her periphery though, especially with Elias around too.

"Well, the party hasn't even started yet. There's still time to enjoy the other activities before it does." She mused, taking a sip of her cider to give herself a moment to ponder. "But not the apples, I think I'll stay away from those from here on out." Whatever it was that had gone wrong there, she would have one of the Plunkett boys take a look at it.

---

  

---

Ford nodded. "I did a few things already," he said, combing back through his mental map of the event to list them off. Of course, not all of them were exactly to his taste; he had given the fortune telling a miss, for one. Ford wasn't the sort to dismiss divination out of hand, but he also wasn't sure it was particularly useful. A lot of it was vague, and a lot of it was made up for the sake of theatrics. Being romantically involved with a Seer hadn't done much to change his opinion of it, really — Tycho had visions sometimes, that was true, but Ford had also met him while he was swindling Muggles out of their money by pretending to See a lot more than he did, so. It didn't exactly suggest Ford ought to be taking it all seriously.

"I went on one of those nature walks with Grace," he said. "And watched hedgehogs race through a squash maze. Some of it's not really for people like us," he pointed out. "I don't have anyone to be making toy broomsticks for. Oh — do you?" he asked, recalling that she had older sisters. He had gone to school with some of them, though he hadn't followed them closely enough to remember which, if any, were married by this point. It was reasonable to think that she might have nieces or nephews by now — actually, it was reasonable to think he might have some, too. Verity had been married a while now — but she hadn't made any announcements, and Ford certainly was not inclined to ask.

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

"I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to make a flower crown," that had been her contribution to the booths, her shop assistants running it for her so she could do the bidding of the mothers. "My shop's are simply the best." She added with a teasing air, motioning to the white flowers she sported herself.

At the mention of the hedgehogs, Daff's smile softened. "I think the hedgehogs were my favorite part of planning the day, but I'm glad you enjoyed the walk, I was hoping it would be a nice addition." She chuckled. Playing with the little spikey creatures was oddly amusing, even if that hadn't been her idea. One of the Plunkett brothers had that one well in hand. Toy broomsticks on the other hand, well, that she did have some input on. She was just relieved that Elias had been amenable, in addition to all of the other things they'd been tasked with today.

"I have several nieces running about of varying ages." Ama's kiddos were a little too old for a toy broom, but Senna's daughter was the perfect age. Daff chuckled over the rim of her cider. "I'm sure you will soon enough. How is Mrs. Swann? I haven't seen her since I did the flowers for her wedding." It had been a while ago now, felt sort of like a whisp of another lifetime, but she did hope things were going well.

---

  

---

"She's well," Ford said, because it was you said when people asked how your relatives were doing rather than because he knew it to be true. To be honest, the only reason he didn't spend more energy worrying about Verity was because he already spent so much of it worrying about Grace, or Clementine, or their finances generally. She'd had that episode in the house after her marriage, something akin to a panic attack, and Ford had never really felt that was fully resolved. He didn't want to pry and knew he couldn't force Verity to tell him anything, but whenever he had the spare attention he did worry about her.

He certainly had no intention of prodding her over whether or not she was going to have children soon, but Miss Potts' remarks did drive home that they'd reached the timeline where other people were going to start in on that soon enough. Ford didn't think there was anything he could do about that, except avoid contributing to it himself... hopefully she'd have a child soon and that would at least put the potential for vicious rumors to rest.

"I might," he said, the most noncommittal agreement he could muster. "But even so they wouldn't be old enough to make use of toy brooms for a good long while."

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

"Fair enough," Daff was pleased to hear Mrs. Swann was doing well these days. Her own contributions aside, Noble had seemed so tense that day that Daff had wondered if everything was alright. None of it was her business anyway. People generally got married and had children if and only when they were ready to. At least she hoped it was that way. "I'm sure it'll come along when the time is right."

Draining the last of her cider, Daff rather thought she probably ought to get back to the chaos outside of the barn to make sure things were still trending in the right direction. Perhaps she would go close down the apples and check in to see if anything else had gone awry this afternoon. Soon enough the events would progress into the barn itself for the dance and she would be clear run off her feet. "Shall we head back outside?" She motioned the wide open barn door on the far side where the sounds of the fair could be heard. Daff was struck again by if things were different how it would be perfectly natural for her to keep Fortitude's company, an easy extension of Noble, but since it wasn't, she probably shouldn't keep him from his sisters for too long.

---

  

---