The garden had not waited for her.
This was not a complaint. She came back to it on the first morning after returning to find three weeks of autumn growth having proceeded entirely without her supervision, which was, she understood, precisely what growth was supposed to do. The medicinal herbs she had planted in the spring had come fully into their summer expression and were now beginning their autumn preparation, the hardy varieties settling in for the cold and the more delicate ones having completed their cycle entirely and left behind the seeds that would require planting in the spring.
She crouched in the garden with her hands in the soil and felt the specific satisfaction of things having continued in her absence.
Alaric came to the garden wall at mid-morning with tea, as had becom
