And after that? Defiance by Alexander, a quarrel easily picked, that would let him fight the young man and kill him? Then, as kinsman and heir, Madoc’s way would be clear to invoke the duke’s first proposal, and take possession of Alice, hoping that in her grief and confusion she would accept his claim as her father’s first choice of husband and ruler of Castle Rose? Knowing nothing of Alice, he might have expected that she, being young, alone, and in distress, would not try to deny his claim, but would accept his “protection” for herself and her people. And even if, in her grief, she threatened to ask for the High King’s judgment over Alexander’s death, she would hardly pursue the matter once she was with child by Madoc of an undoubted heir.

About the murdered servant Count Madoc, being what he was, probably did not think at all. A body carried out and flung into the river, to be found and wondered over perhaps days after that tragic night …? By the time questions were asked – if indeed anyone troubled to investigate a servant’s death – he himself would, with luck, be lord of Castle Rose and above questioning.

The count’s men, not knowing that they had been prisoners through the night, emerged at daybreak to be told – with an irony they could not appreciate – that their master had suffered a seizure during the night and had died of it. Their captain, escorted by Jeshua to the count’s room, looked at the blood-stained body on the bed and, after a due pause for reflection on his and his men’s situation, agreed that it had been a seizure. His men would leave that day, and take their master’s body home for burial. Meanwhile the dead servant’s body was carried to the duke’s own chapel, and the duke, shaking off the mists of the sleeping-potion, went there himself to add his prayers to those of the man’s sister, a kitchen-girl, who knelt there weeping.

And eventually, as it usually does, morning came.

Neither Alexander nor Alice took any part in all these complicated matters. They stole out of the duke’s crowded bedchamber, picking their way over Madoc’s body, and went back to bed.

EPILOGUE

So ended the adventure of Alexander the Fatherless and Alice the Pretty Pilgrim. They found their home and, as the chronicler relates, “They lived there in great joy.”

But first there were a few things to be settled. Count Madoc’s body was taken home by his men, there to be given honourable burial. It is on record that the captain, who knew something of his late master’s plans, and who certainly knew the manner of his master’s death, said nothing about either. Between the duke and his distant kinsmen there was, as before, indifference and courtesy.

Or rather, between them and Castle Rose. The duke did not remain there for much longer. With Alexander confirmed as the castle’s master, Ansirus made his final preparations for retiring to St Martin’s monastery. Meanwhile a messenger, a trusted servant, was sent to Camelot. He carried an account of all that had happened, Queen Morgan’s connection with the dissident faction, her attempts to get hold of the grail of power, her plan, through Count Madoc, to acquire Castle Rose for some purpose of those same would-be rebels, and Madoc’s attack on the duke and the murder of his servant. Finally, a kind of confession that asked for merciful judgment on Alexander’s killing of Count Madoc.