She did indeed look very ghostlike, a slight figure in a grey cloak that fluttered in the breeze, a lady whom he did not for a moment recognise. Then he saw it was the Lady Luned, alone, and apparently, from her pallor and the way she held to the stem of a young silver birch tree, frightened. The horse stood still, held hard, but rolling a white-edged eye. The lady took a step forward, still clinging to the sapling’s stem as if without its support she might have fallen. But she spoke prosaically.

“I’m sorry if I startled your horse. I thought it must be you, but I dared not be seen, in case –” She hesitated.

“In case?”

“In case perhaps it was one of the queen’s people.”

“Were you waiting for me, then?” The banal question came out of embarrassment. He had looked for the lady that morning to take his leave of her and thank her for her kindness, only to be told that she had not yet left her chamber. He should, in courtesy, have waited; he knew that quite well. But in his eagerness to be gone on his new mission, and at the queen’s insistence, he had left messages merely, and ridden out as soon as he had broken his fast.

He said quickly: “I looked for you earlier, but your women said you were not yet about. I wished to give you my thanks for all you did for me, and I’m very happy to have this chance to thank you. But why – I mean, how is it you’ve come out here alone, and so early? To speak with me? Why, lady? Surely not just to say God speed?”

“I rode out early, and left my women to say I was still abed. My horse is tied up back there, out of sight in the wood. I had to see you. While you were at the castle I was powerless to come to you in private, but now …”

Her voice died. Her hands plucked nervously at her cloak. He regarded her for a moment, frowningly, then slid down from the saddle and offered her his arm. “You have something to tell me? Some commission to give me? Willingly – though I don’t know how long it will be before I’ll be able to return. Come, lady, if it’s a secret matter, then let us go into cover and talk there. Where did you leave your horse?”

Her mare was tethered in a clearing some thirty yards back into the forest. Alexander slipped the chestnut’s reins over its head, and let the beast graze. He looked round for a stump, a boulder, a fallen bough for the lady to sit on, but there was nothing, and she shook her head, speaking urgently, and still with that look of fear.

“No. There’s no time. I must get back before she misses me. My lord, will you hear me out? I know – who does not? – that you are Queen Morgan’s man, and that she has sent you out today as she has sent others of her lovers –”