Page 101
Winnie nodded. “Yep. Born and raised. I graduated college there, then moved all over until I found consultant work in New York.”
“There weren’t consulting opportunities closer to home?” he asked next.
Oh, there were opportunities. Plenty of them. Especially being near Dad with all the many connections he had as a lawyer. But she’d chosen New York for a reason—and that was to get some space between her and her family.
Of course that had never stopped her dad from still giving her his contacts left and right.
“New York just called my name I guess,” she replied.
“Does your whole family still live in Utah?”
“My parents do. But my siblings are scattered everywhere now. Oregon, Germany, Florida, California.”
They reached the top of the steps and turned to face another set. Winnie had to admit, she was kind of over stairs after Malham, but if these led to another view like the cove had, then she wouldn’t complain at the top.
“Do you ever get to see them?” Matthew asked.
Why the sudden interest in her family? Or was he simply making polite conversation? “We get together once in person every year, but other than that, we just see each other during video chats.” She looked at him from the corner of her eye. “As you well know.”
He smiled, though he had the decency to look slightly sheepish. “I’ve been meaning to speak to you about that. I’m sorry I made you uncomfortable.”
“No, you aren’t,” she said with a small laugh. “You were eating the whole thing up.”
He shrugged. “Well, any man would when he hears a beautiful woman finds him attractive.”
Winnie looked at him, her lips parting at his words.
Beautiful. He’d called her beautiful.
Obviously, he wasn’t aware of the effect he’d had on her, as he motioned straight ahead and pulled her attention elsewhere. “You’ll like this.”
Winnie followed his gaze, still reeling before catching sight of the enormous tree in the center of the open-roof courtyard. “It’s a tree,” she stated, “just…growing right there.”
He laughed at her stating the obvious. “That’s a yew tree, planted in the sixteen hundreds, reputedly by the very Lady Anne who erected the sign in the front.”
“Yeah, I really like her,” Winnie said, propping her hands on her hips and nodding her head as she admired the towering tree above them. Its trunk twisted toward the sky like a giant licorice.
The inside of the courtyard boasted of far more windows than the outside of the castle had, countless, skinny frames lining the walls to the doors that led to even more rooms.
They stepped across the stone flooring, moving to the stairs at the left as Matthew continued to share his wealth of knowledge about the enormous fireplaces tall enough for children to stand in—“It’s been said that the fires were so hot, the chefs used to cook without clothes on”—to the toilets on the top floor that sent their waste down, down, down, where “individuals used moss to clean themselves up afterward.”
Winnie listened to everything, even when she was squirming in the darkness of the dungeons, completely enraptured by the history Matthew shared with her.
“Now I know why we’ve come here,” she said, moving to yet another room, this one labeled Lord’s bedchamber.
“Why is that?” Matthew asked.
“So you can teach me all about the medieval era and make me fall in love with history, too. Then I’ll want the festival to be as authentic as you do.”
His gleeful smile made her laugh. “Is it working?” he asked.
“Maybe,” she lied.
It was totally working.
They passed by a few more rooms as Matthew continued his questioning of her family. “So, I assume your siblings left Utah for work, like you did?”
Honestly, he was probably just curious, and his questions were harmless. But Winnie always felt crummy after touting her siblings’ experiences. She always looked so dowdy afterwards.
