Meadow wouldn’t argue with her sister. Flora was the only one who understood her grief and turmoil, so she didn’t want to disappoint her. Flora often saw things that Meadow didn’t and being related to the de Velt family and privy to their political and social station was indeed something that shouldn’t be overlooked. Lista was indeed of marriageable age, so it was time to do something about it.
But perhaps it wouldn’t take a journey to Newcastle.
Perhaps it would be as simple as speaking to Kellington, who promised to visit soon. From one mother to another, perhaps she could convince Kellington that Lista would be a perfect wife for the woman’s son. She didn’t even know his name but she would remedy that.
Meadow was going to find her daughter a de Velt husband.
CHAPTER SEVEN
As Julian quicklydiscovered, Felkington was a most remarkable castle.
So was its chatelaine.
Tucked away in a remote area of Northumberland, or at least a not very well-traveled area, Felkington had been built two hundred years before to protect a convergence of roads. The road leading west ended in Carlisle while the one leading east went into Berwick. The road north led past Northwood Castle and into Scotland while the road leading south went down into the heart of Northumbria.
Once, Felkington had been very important. But as the years passed, bigger roads were built, cities grew, and travel moved away from this remote area. Felkington, however, remained big and strong, as it had been when it was an important outpost. It was built in a square shape, with impenetrable walls on the outside and no windows until the third floor. There wasn’t a keep, but simply many rooms built against the walls so the castle was essentially one building with a courtyard in the center. There were passages and guard rooms and stables and an enormous hall on the third floor, with lancet windows overlooking the land below.
The castle, in fact, was perfectly defensible.
Julian was greatly impressed with it. One of the biggest things he was impressed with was the courtyard itself, carved out in the middle of this enormous, square structure. There were several doorways that opened onto the courtyard, including a passageway that was the main castle entrance. There was a gigantic portcullis on the outside, protected by fortified gates, but if one happened to make it through those gates and the portcullis, there was another portcullis and a set of gates on the interior where it opened into the bailey.
Each door leading into the courtyard also had its own portcullis and iron gates, so even if an enemy made it into the courtyard after all of the defenses in the passage, there was no way to make it into one of the doorways. Overhead, looking into the courtyard, were dozens of windows from which an army could fire arrows down into an invading army.
Like shooting fish in a barrel.
Above the courtyards and gates and portcullises, the castle reached five stories into the sky on all sides, plus the roof as the sixth floor. The grounds outside of the castle were protected by a wall and a moat, but they were just for show. They were weak compared to the structure itself. The wall protected an area of more stables and a garden and even a vineyard, but given how some walls were on contemporary castles– massive and tall– the relatively short walls of Felkington were really just meant to keep out marauders or animals or thieves. An army could easily get over them, but once they ran into the castle itself, the gesture would be futile.
It was little wonder that Felkington hadn’t seen a siege in over one hundred years.
Lista had been right about one thing– Felkington lived in its own little world, a bucolic paradise in a remote area of Northumberland. No one really bothered them, so it was quiteidyllic. Julian and Addington followed Lista around, listening to her talk about her ancestors who had built the place, of the fortification features, of the bake house and the brew house and a dozen other self-sufficient trades they had. Everything about them was completely self-sufficient and after the tour of the castle itself, which took most of the day, they ended up outside in the vineyard.
Felkington was built on the top of a hill overlooking a green and placid valley. As they emerged from the main entrance and headed out towards the vineyard, they were joined by Ashton. Julian had kept the man purposely busy for most of the day making sure the warhorses had their shoes adjusted because he’d made up an excuse about his beast’s odd gait and wanted it checked. That meant checking every shoe of the horse who wasn’t particularly cooperative, which took time. Then he forced Ashton to check his own horse’s shoes.
In truth, it was simply to keep him away from Addington because Ashton and Anteaus had shown some aggression towards one another back at Berwick. The aggression had been mostly sidelong glances and stiff expressions, but Julian didn’t want Ashton overwhelming Addington at the moment. She was here to visit with Lista, so Julian was trying to keep Ashton away from her.
But that hadn’t worked for long.
“I thought I saw you coming out here,” Ashton said, following them from the gatehouse. “May I join you?”
Lista and Addington came to a halt, turning to the smiling knight as he caught up to them. Julian was already a few paces ahead, trying to think up another excuse to keep Ashton away. But the more he thought about it, the more he was thinking he might have done the wrong thing. If Ashton had Addington’s attention, that meant he could have Lista’s.
Aye… perhaps he’d been wrong all along.
Sometimes, his consideration for others was at his own expense.
“Lady Lista was going to show us the vineyard,” he said as he watched Ashton go straight to Addington like a moth to a flame. “We just had the tour of the castle and I must say that I am quite impressed. This is far more of a fortress than I had imagined.”
Hearing the comment, Lista turned to Julian just as Ashton and Addington came together.
“It is a magical place,” she said, smiling at him. “We are hiding here from the world.”
“And for good reason,” Julian said. She was so close that he boldly held out an elbow to her, inviting her to take it and holding his breath while she considered it. “This must have been a wonderful place to grow up.”
Lista only considered his silent invitation for a brief second before she slid her hand into the crook of his elbow. Beneath her fingers, through the fabric, she could feel his big muscles and it was enough to make her heart pound against her ribs. Her hand, touching him, seemed the most natural of things.
She could easily become used to it.
“It was,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound as breathless as she felt. “Honestly, I can count the times we’ve known trouble on one hand.”
