Now the Witch ran a illegal gaming operation out of the back door
of her cottage,and all the various ogres,trolls,brownies
and bugboos that traipsed about the area often came by
to make a bet.
Since the Witch was a witch,she had powers of foresight,
which meant she knew in advance if Sir Humphrey was about
to duel the Dragon,and the likely outcome.
Hence the House had a fairly good grasp of the odds
and the Witch generally made a small profit from the
bets the ogres,etc made.
Naturally the Witch had foressen a match between the former
Sir John,now a knucker,and Dame Alessa.
It just so happened the Queen of the Knuckers was too high born a
Lady to make the bets with the Witch herself,but
sent a trusted ogre to make the bets on her behalf.
So the Queen of the Knuckers had her money in on the
upcoming battle that Nicola was starting to edge away from
as Sir John the Knucker made its threatning approach...