“Surely, he can just walk with me.”
“It isn’t clear how much wine he drank, so better to have men do it in case he needs more support than you can give. Besides, this way you can stay.”
She made movements to get up. “I really should—”
“He needs his pallet, not a mother. Stay. I am told that the cook made a special almond cake. The castle folk have been drooling in anticipation all day and talking about little else.”
She hesitated. “Almond cake, you say?”
“Lots of butter, they said. And honey, I think. Does that sound right? I don’t make cakes myself.”
“It sounds just right. Perfect.” She licked her lips in a way that sent his mind in the devil’s direction. “I suppose I can stay a while longer.”
Zander poured her more wine.
“I must go now.” Elinor licked the remnants of her second piece of almond cake off her fingers. For some reason Zander stared as she did so.
“Why?” He pulled his attention away from her fingers. “I will make sure that you return safely, and it is not very late. Why not see the castle while there is still light outside?”
“Could I?”
“Of course.” He pushed back his chair. The meal was done, and the boards were being removed so dancing could start. “Come with me, and I’ll show you the chambers above, and the grounds.”
Zander appeared at home in Lord Yves’s castle, but then he had been here some days now. Still, it impressed Elinor how he guided her to the stairway as if he owned the manor, and handed her up the stairs.
“Are you sure this is permitted by Lord Yves?” she asked while she mounted the stairs and felt him behind her. “He gave you a very odd look while we passed him.”
“That was only an acknowledgment from him. A way of saying ‘Go right ahead, my home is your home.’”
It had looked more like a warning, and a way of saying “Watch your step and where you trod, Sir Alexander.”
All the same, eager to see the castle’s appointments, she followed Zander’s lead through the chamber where her father had recently spoken to Lord Yves, to another room that looked to be arranged for family doings. Only little in it spoke of family. Some books and furniture kept it from being barren, but it possessed a spare, unused look.
“Has he no wife or children?”
“His wife passed away years ago. He has a son who is being fostered now, with a lord in the south.”
“I suppose he will remarry some day.”
“He says he prefers widows with lots of land. If he finds one, he will probably marry her.”
“Maybe he will marry Lady Judith.”
“He has indicated not. He doesn’t like her nose.”
She laughed. “She looks to be very wealthy. What difference does a nose make?”
“He says it is very important. Although, perhaps he also finds her too. . . voracious.”
She stopped to admire a very nice chair in the second room. “She did seem to have a strong appetite, so perhaps he is right in that. Although it is an odd thing to hold against her, especially since he can afford whatever amount she eats.”
She turned away from the chair to see Zander watching her with a bemused expression.
He opened another door. “Come in here. It is the finest solar I have ever seen.”
She stepped through to a chamber flooded with the red light of the setting sun. A very large window, one made up of many small pieces of glass held together with lead tracery, faced the west. She smoothed her fingers down the glazing.
“This must have cost two fortunes.”
“At least,” Zander said. “It would be pleasant on a winter day to sit in this solar, out of the elements but with views of the countryside.” He came up beside her. “Watch this.” He pushed a lever on a central panel of the window and swung it back, leaving a large hole open to the air.
She peered out. “An army could come through this entry. What if the castle is besieged?”
“That is a private garden below, and a good wall around it. Any enemy would have to breach three walls to get to this part of the castle, and that would be after they entered the town to start.”
The little garden below appeared quite lovely. A little spot of paradise. “There are flowers down there.”
“There are more beyond its wall in the main garden. Would you like to see it?”
“Oh, yes. After days with few trees and too much dried grass, some greenery and flowers would be wonderful.”
“Let us go while there is still light.” He closed the solar window, then took her hand and guided her back through the chambers to the stairs. Down they went, this way and that. Zander had come to know this castle very well.
“Are your lord and Lord Yves friendly?”
“Friendly enough, although I don’t think anyone knows Lord Yves’s mind enough to think of him as a friend. Why do you ask?”
“I wondered why he would allow you to learn his castle so well. If you can move so freely, you have probably studied its defenses and now know its vulnerabilities.”
“I would never violate his hospitality thus.”
“You assessed what it would take to gain entry through that solar.”
He opened a heavy oak door. “It is a natural reaction. We all are always thinking about war strategies.”
The door gave out to a garden that stretched from the castle proper to the wall that enclosed it. Bathed now in the evening’s light, gold washed the leaves and rose tinted the stones. A pear tree grew in the center to give shade in the afternoon, and shrubbery lined two paths that crossed, intersecting in the middle. Even in winter this would be a special place.
A fragrance drifted on the light breeze. She ventured down the center path toward the colors visible behind the shrubbery, in the back northern corner. A bed of flowers thrived here, with a cherry tree standing sentry against the
