“It be awful kind of you, miss.”
She and Mr. McKeith walked back to The Castle and now it was dark. The stars shone overhead and looking up Fiona could see the statues on the towers silhouetted against the sky.
“It is beautiful, but awe-inspiring!” she said aloud.
“After a time you will have a feeling of protection, of being immunised from the troubles of the ordinary world outside.”
“If that happens, it sounds very pleasing,” Fiona replied.
She thought as she spoke that she might not stay long enough to reach this enviable phase and she wondered when the Duke would talk to her as he had said he intended to do.
She did not have to wait long to find out.
It had taken some time to prepare the herbs and to apply them and, when she and Mr. McKeith walked up the stone staircase towards t
