I was just beginning to think of either leaving or tapping on the door again when it opened. A lavishly garbed matron and her two daughters emerged. The younger girl had tears in her eyes, but her sister looked bored. The mother thanked Jinna profusely for a very long time before she tartly ordered her girls to stop tarrying and come along. The glance she gave me as she led them off did not approve of me.

If I had thought Jinna’s leaving me standing outside was a sort of retribution, the warm and weary look she gave me dispelled the notion. She wore a green robe. A wide yellow waist-belt cinched her middle and lifted her breasts. It was very becoming. “Come in, come in. Oh, such a morning. It’s strange. Folk want to know what you see in their hands, but so often they don’t want to believe it.”

She shut the door behind me, plunging us back in dimness.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come to visit last night. My master had duties for me. I’ve brought you some fresh spice bread from the market.”

“Oh. How lovely! I see you bought hevnuts at the market. I wish I had known that you liked them, for my niece’s trees have borne so heavily this year that we can scarcely decide what to do with them all. A neighbor out near her farm may take some for pig fodder, but they have fallen so thick this year one fair wades through them.”

So much for that. But she took the spice bread from me and set it on the table, exclaiming over how delicious it smelled, and telling me that Hap was, of course, at his master’s. Her niece had borrowed the pony and cart to haul firewood in, did I mind? Hap had said she might, and said too that it was better for the pony to do the light work the old beast could handle than to stand idly stabled. I assured her that was fine. “No Fennel?” I asked, wondering at the cat’s absence.

“Fennel?” She seemed surprised I would ask. “Oh, he’s probably out and about his own business. You know how cats are.”

I set the sack of hevnuts on the floor by the door and hung my cloak above it. The little room was warm and my cold ears stung as they returned to life. As I turned to the table, she was setting down two steaming cups of tea. The rising warmth beckoned me. A dish of butter and some honey waited beside the bread. “Are you hungry?” she asked me, smiling up at me.

“A bit,” I admitted. Her smile was contagious.

Her eyes moved over my face. “I am, too,” she said. Then she stepped forward, and I found my arms around her, and her mouth rising up to mine. I had to stoop to kiss her. Her lips opened to mine, inviting, and she tasted of tea and spices. I felt suddenly dizzy.