Chapter Five
Roxana worked all the morning in her studio, but there was no sign of the Count.
Geertruida prepared her a light meal about noon and then, when most people rested as the sun was so hot, Roxana went back to her carving.
She knew that for the first time she could not concentrate as she had always been able to do.
In fact every nerve in her body was alert, waiting for the sound of an approaching horse and then to hear the Count’s footsteps cross the courtyard.
Yet at the same time she knew that she had never worked better because every mark of her chisel was made with love.
She stood for a long time looking at the tree in which she had seen the figures of a man and a woman entwined.
She knew that, while it was perhaps prophetic that it should have been brought to her at th
