Embrasures opened in the castle walls, allowing cold air to sweep into the corridor. The evening sky turned a deep blue as the first stars forced their way through the darkening heavens. Moonglow threw its light across the landscape, shaping hills and mountains before gliding behind a sliver of cloud. The moon’s shift swallowed what light there was in the corridor. Blackstone stopped. Whomever he was pursuing could have gone into the labyrinth of passages and to continue was likely to be a waste of time. He was about to turn back when he heard a crow’s guttural cawing somewhere further on. There was sufficient light from the darkening sky to feel his way forward. More steps. Another turn. A longer passage. Narrow openings in the walls forcing the breeze to whistle softly. Its sound took him back to childhood and the memory of blowing through a split piece of grass to impress his younger brother. A brother whose destiny took him to the battlefield at Crécy where he was hacked to death.

‘Sir Thomas?’

He spun around. The darkened opening was a deep doorwell where a door had silently opened and Velasquita now stood. The fine dress she’d worn in the great hall had been replaced by a modest, plain gown buttoned down the front with loose hanging sleeves that brushed her neck as she raised a hand to tuck back a strand of black hair. Blackstone wondered if she had been in a hurry and only just arrived in her room. In that moment he realized he had reached the room in the turret where he had first caught sight of her. He looked beyond the open door. The room was simple but warm with coloured throws over the bed. There was no sign of witchcraft or symbols of evil. It appeared to be nothing more than a woman’s bedchamber. Except for the raven on the windowsill that glared back, bobbed its head and then took off.

‘I heard what I thought was a crow and that it might have been trapped,’ he said. It was a lame excuse, and he regretted saying it.

‘It is unlike a soldier to care about a crow’s welfare,’ she said.

‘It is.’

‘And yet.’

‘And yet I was drawn to it.’

‘Only the crow?’

Blackstone recognized an invitation when it was blatantly offered. ‘I stumbled my way here as I was searching.’

Velasquita made no overt sign of enticement. She didn’t have to. Blackstone already desired her.