“Who from?”
She shrugged as they headed down the slope towards the vineyard. “Scots, mostly,” she said. “Sometimes they come down to raid our garden and steal our grapes, but we have large dogs that we turn into the garden at night and they are an excellent deterrent.”
Julian looked out over the stunning green landscape. “How many men do you have?”
“Around two hundred.”
He looked at her in surprise. “For a fortress this large?”
She nodded. “Look at it,” she said, gesturing to the obvious. “Once we close the passageway to the courtyard, it is impenetrable. They can get over the walls if they try and damage the garden and the stable yard, but they cannot make it into the castle no matter how hard they try.”
Julian looked back over his shoulder at the castle behind him. “That is true,” he said. “I do not think I’ve ever seen such a tall fortress.”
“The Scots had a name for it, many years ago.”
“What’s that?”
“Meuran gu nèamh.”
Julian had lived on the borders his entire life and he was fairly fluent in Gaelic. “Fingers to heaven?”
Lista nodded. “Doesn’t it look like the corner towers are stretching to heaven?”
“It does,” he agreed. His gaze was still on the structure, looking at the southwest corner in particular. He came to a halt, gesturing to the very top of the corner tower. “Is that smoke I see?”
Lista already knew what he meant before she looked. Therefore, her glance was brief. “Aye,” she said. “That room is used exclusively by my mother and aunt.”
“Are they burning something up there?”
Lista nodded, her humor completely gone. She released his elbow and began to head towards the vineyard. “They are burning dried hemp leaves,” she said.
His brow furrowed, but he started to follow her. “For what purpose?”
Lista sighed heavily and she came to a halt. “Julian, in case you have not yet realized it, my mother and aunt have a… problem,” she said. “They drink to excess, they eat or snort or inhale anything they can find that will alter their state of consciousness. In short, they are addicted to anything thatmakes them feel happy or sad or giddy or mad. My mother has not been sober in two long years, so they go to the tower room and burn hemp leaves because the smoke intoxicates them. Even now, they are inhaling it as deeply as they can because they will soon be out of dried leaves and will want for more. But at least while they are in that room, things at Felkington are quiet and lovely. Look around you and see our paradise. But this paradise hides a troubling secret.”
He was looking at her intently, the wind lifting the hair that usually covered up his right eye. “I knew it from the start,” he said. “I knew it when your mother came out of the apothecary’s stall and plowed into one of my soldiers and then slapped him for being in her way. All things considered, it is not such a terrible secret. I’ve seen families with worse. But it must be a burden upon you to have to manage your mother and your aunt constantly.”
Lista lifted an ironic eyebrow. “Burden, indeed,” she said. “She’s my mother. She is supposed to be the responsible one, yet she cannot manage it, so the duty must fall to me. All of the duty must fall to me while she behaves like a woman who is trying to force herself into an early grave.”
“And this makes you bitter?”
“It makes me frustrated.”
He folded his massive arms across his chest, those bulging muscles at Lista’s eye level. “Why does she do this?” he asked. “You said it has only been for two years? What happened two years ago that caused her to take this path?”
“A little over two years ago, my father died and my brother was murdered shortly thereafter,” she said. “That did something to my mother. What she does, she does to forget. Or mayhap she simply wishes to join them. I really don’t know because she will not speak to me of it at all. My mother and I are not close these days because she locks herself away with my aunt and they do allthey can to intoxicate themselves. That leaves me to make sure Felkington survives.”
He nodded in understanding. “I see,” he said. “I’m glad you told me. I know a little something about having great responsibility thrust upon you. It can be… heavy.”
Off to their left, Addington let out a yelp as she tripped over something in the vineyard. She and Ashton had strolled down to the neat rows of grapes and had been picking them straight off the vine, at least those that hadn’t already been harvested. When Addington tripped, Ashton was there to catch her and they giggled together.
Lista found herself watching the pair.
“She likes him a great deal,” she said softly.
Julian was watching, as well. “That has been going on between them for a few years now,” he said. “He will not commit and she will not let him catch her, so on it goes. She’s rather old to still be a maiden, so I hope she stops running from him soon. It is time for Addie to have a family and grow up.”
Lista turned to him, watching his expression as he observed Addington and Ashton in the distance. “Are all of your siblings married?” she asked.
