Ottilie’s Plumb Line
- Cheap passage
- Busier than the day
At Longmere, Ottilie Marrow hung a plumb line from the scaffold of the north tower and waited for the bob to stop swinging. Down the valley House Mara’s catch came up as a low lamp-note that she felt more than heard. She chipped one curled leaf for a finial that will sit above the roofline in a century nobody here will see. Then she climbed down to eat her bread with chalk on her thumbs.