Epilogue
The story of Miss Ellerby and the flying boat proved a persistent one in Tilby. It was talked of everywhere, and as is often the way with stories, with each telling its proportions grew larger and more fantastic. After a week, Isabel’s companions expanded to include not just Mr. Balligumph, a leafling fae and a strange cat, but also a gaggle of pixies, a trow fiddler and all the brownies of Ferndeane. It later began to be said that the Piper’s Rade had swept her away; even that Miss Ellerby had been a part of the Piper’s band from the beginning, for had she not been present for their first appearance?
Isabel herself tried, with all the power of modest dignity and unassuming manners at her disposal, to divert the wildest of the stories, and steadfastly denied every part that did
