“DEFENDING THE castle?”
Taken off guard, Amy turned to see Colin framed in the archway that led to the keep’s stairwell. He was dressed casually, in buff-colored breeches and a billowing white shirt, his hair still damp from a recent washing.
The last time she’d seen him, he’d been mentally and physically exhausted. Now the circles were gone from under his eyes. He looked relaxed and rested, and under those breeches and that shirt…
Well, he looked quite fit.
She swallowed hard, her hands tightening on the iron grille set into the keep’s window. “Defending the castle?” she echoed.
His smile reached his compelling emerald eyes. “This is where the castle guard lived, and you were watching through the window.”
“Oh.” She blushed, feeling thick-witted for not catching the reference. What was it about him that robbed her ability to think straight? “I was just…ruminating.” She glanced out the window, struggling for some relevant comment she could make. “How could they see to guard? The windows are so narrow.”
“The better to deter arrows in days past.” Colin moved toward her, then abruptly stopped. She thought she saw a frown flit across his tanned face. “In truth, they only lived and stored weapons in here. There used to be a level above where they took turns day and night, watching through the notches in the battlement all around.”
Amy looked up at the sky, streaked with colors from the setting sun. She imagined the guards up there, pacing back and forth, clanking around in their armor. Colin’s words seemed to do that to her: make her imagine other places, other times.
She stole another glance at him. His gleaming black hair was loose for a change, cut just to his shoulders, easy to manage if not fashionable. It was odd, but the color she hated on her own head looked perfect on his.
She’d been convinced that her intense reaction to his kiss, that one time that now seemed so long ago, had been an outgrowth of her grief, a method for escape. But suddenly she knew she’d been fooling herself. It seemed each time she saw him, the pull was stronger.
She took a step closer. “I can picture the knights up there when you talk about them.”
“A romantic image, but they weren’t knights decked out for battle.” Colin took a step back and leaned against the wall, crossing his ankles and arms. “Just regular men, mostly. Each of the lord’s vassals—all the men granted use of his land—was obligated to spend part of his year as a member of the castle guard.”
“I’ve been wondering what it used to be like to live here.”
“Well, Kendra sent me to find you for supper, but I can give you my famous tour on the way down.”
Amy’s laugh bounced around the bare stone walls and tapered off into the night as she followed him to the stair tower. She was surprised such a light, happy sound had come from her.
“It’s hard to imagine living in anything so primitive as a keep today,” Colin’s words floated up to her, “but in the twelfth century, it would have contained the best residential lodging for the lord. In those days, others lived in the smaller towers set into the castle walls, while the rest of the people had their homes constructed against the inside surfaces of the enclosure.”
When they came out on the next floor, Amy wandered to a window where she could oversee the quadrangle. “No wonder it’s so big,” she said, imagining hundreds of people milling below.
“The castle was like a small town, and this keep was the ultimate in luxury accommodations.” He joined her at the window, accidentally grazing her arm. At least, it seemed like an accident. “There was a poultry yard where all the animals were kept.” When he moved closer, the pit of her stomach began tingling. “Soldiers, skilled workers, servants and their families—everyone made their home within the castle walls.”
Suddenly she felt giddy. His words weren’t going in one ear and out the other, not quite, but she was having a hard time concentrating.
“Tell me more,” she begged.
“The portcullis, that wooden iron-banded gate at the barbican over there, would be down all the time, not just at night like it is now. The drawbridge would be raised unless someone needed to leave or enter.”
When Colin paused, she turned to look at him. Their eyes met, his gaze steady. “This would have been the lord’s bedchamber.”
“Oh.” She blushed furiously and looked at her hands.
“It would have been decorated with beautiful tapestries, and the bed would have been draped with yards and yards of fabric that could be pulled together to keep in the warmth. An enormous bed, so that on cold nights they could all get in, the whole family, and nestle together to keep warm.”
Though Colin’s words were simply informative, his voice was full of meaning, as though…
No, it was all her imagination. He hadn’t asked how she was, or anything else of a personal nature. She had to stop dreaming. He’d come only to fetch her for supper.
And to take her away.
Well, there was no sense dwelling on such a depressing subject. “Is supper waiting?” she asked.
Colin blinked before answering, and when he did, his words were clipped. “I reckon it is. We should go.”
Amy followed him down the twisting staircase, but when he headed toward the courtyard, she slowed on the ground floor. Despite everything, she didn’t quite feel ready to share him with his family.
“What was this room for?”
He hesitated before turning back. “This would have been the main living quarters for the lord and his family.” He was the tour guide again, his voice instructive, nothing more. “They would have eaten here, food brought to them by servants from the castle kitchens. The lord’s children would have had their lessons here, and the family would have played games and received visitors here. There would have been lots of food and supplies in the storeroom underneath, in case of a siege.”
Amy ran her fingers down the ancient wall. “You’ve a lovely home, my lord.”
He shrugged. “It’s Jason’s, really.”
She walked around the circular chamber, trailing one hand along the rough stone. “I can picture your lord and his family living here. Were they happy, do you think?”
“I imagine so.” Colin chuckled. “The Chases were always a boisterous lot, I’m told.”
Amy halted, startled. But of course it had been his family living here these past four hundred years; it just hadn’t occurred to her before. They’d been peers for all that long. Just as her own family had been jewelers for an untold number of years. It was an intriguing thought, and a sad one, emphasizing the many reasons she and Colin could never be together.
“They’re surely waiting for us by now,” he said, breaking her reverie. “Shall we?”