A few days later found Gerald and Anna sitting in her room, with a fire going against the increasingly chilly nights while Tempus lay, snoring on the floor.
Gerald was picking absently at a plate of cheese while Anna rifled through papers on a small table.
"I have a plan," she stated.
"All right, let's hear it," he responded.
"We're going to run away for a while."
"Come again? I thought we put that off the table a long time ago."
"I don't mean forever. I mean we're going to sneak off on a little expedition."
"And by 'we' you mean?"
"Just you, and I, and half a dozen guards or so."
He absently brushed his hands free of cheese. "And where, precisely, are we going to sneak off to?"
"Norwatch. It lies on the northern road that goes east from here," she stated.
"What's in Norwatch th
