For a moment she wondered whether Phineas would follow her at all, but he was a brave soul, and soon joined her upon the bridge. The wild look had not left his eyes. ‘The pinnacle?’ he echoed. ‘But it is not so tall a hill as all that.’
‘Is it not?’ Ilsevel gazed upon the evidence before her eyes: the heavy cloak of mist clinging to the high peak, and the glimpse of a dark landscape some way below.
‘In England, it doesn’t look half so tall. Nor even half that.’
‘Ah,’ said Ilsevel with a faint smile. ‘England.’
‘Tiresomely mundane,’ said Phineas with a small sigh. ‘I was forgetting.’
‘It has its merits,’ said Ilsevel, as, with a thankful pat for the coach, she set off across the bridge.
‘Such as?’
‘One Phineas Drake, Baker. I find him a congenial fellow.’
Phineas, it appeared, did n
