By the time Alys had strewn the herbs across every freshly cleaned floor, ’twas nearly mid-morning. She had heard Burke’s whistle earlier and knew he was awake. Ensuring that both Aunt and Malvina were yet abed, she embarked on her furtive mission.
But Burke was not in the hall or the kitchen. He was neither in the armory nor the bailey. Alys thought he might have gone riding but found his destrier still in the stables. The great steed nosed in his feed bin as Kerwyn murmured to him, brushing his flank. Neither glanced up at her.
Alys paused in the dappled sunlight that filled the corridor running alongside the stalls and glanced down the length of the stables. She seldom came here, her labor keeping her within the hall, and the smell of the place made her thoughts turn to a long-ago aft
