Then, suddenly, I forgot them all.

From the green lawn damp with last night’s dew, an arched and towered building strove toward the sun. I stood still beneath its bright stone walls gleaming like the sea, its windows like a rainbow fractured and rearranged.

This was the England I’d dreamed of, the country of the stories I’d loved. Not planned shop visits or wardrobe choices, but grass and stone and beauty enough to leave me breathless.

Bear’s shout from a hundred yards away startled me from my reverie. “Oi! What are you doing?” He shook his head, frowning, arms outstretched. “I thought you wanted a walk!”

“It’s beautiful!” I shouted back, gesticulating at the huge structure. “Library?”

“Cathedral!” he bellowed back. “Church of England.” He put his hands on his hips, head cocked. “Though I don’t imagine a Catholic would be struck by lightning just for stepping inside.”

Surprised, I stifled a laugh. “Can we go in?”

Bear shook his head and beckoned me on, feigning impatience but grinning slightly.

“Fine.” I ran toward him, a little winded. “They brought me here to meet your prince,” I said, bracing one hand on my knee and pointing back at the cathedral with the other. “But scenes like that are why I came to England.”

The guard’s mouth twisted into the tiniest of smug smiles. “Library’s on the other side of the castle. Not as fine as the ones at Oxford or Cambridge or in London, but I’ll take you there in a few days if you’d like.”

“You’ve been to Oxford and Cambridge?” I straightened, suddenly excited.

“Not myself,” Bear said quickly. “But—you know. They say.” He paused. “King Constantine went to Oxford. Bertilak, as well. Myrddin hails from Cymru, but he was a professor at Cambridge. They don’t argue often, those three, but when they do, it’s about which university is superior.”

“That’s funny.” I smiled, feeling a little shortchanged that my trip abroad was a husband hunt and not an adventure like college. “We can’t go see the library now?”

“Later.” Bear smiled, and his elevated accent grew a touch less chilly. “I promise.”

Bear didn’t slow as he walked on, but his shoulders and his voice loosened as he showed me the rectory and the pub beside the river. “There’s the Red Lion, and the miller’s, and that way, past the village green, is the smithy.” He pointed with one hand and shaded his eyes with the other against the pale afternoon sun. “Shops and houses are there on the high street and Saint George’s, as you’ve already seen, and the fields are on the edges of town. They finished planting just before you arrived.”