The boy ran off. Alexander, watching him go, wondered briefly how long it would be before he, too, was made a member of that select and fortunate court assembled in the east tower. Not long, he thought with satisfaction; not long.

Meanwhile there was a duty to be done. He found his way easily enough to the women’s rooms, where the Lady Luned and her women were busy with their needlework. Luned received him with apparent pleasure, and the ladies exclaimed kindly over his happy restoration to looks and health. He made, and then repeated, his apologies for making so prolonged a visit at such a time, apologies she disclaimed charmingly, repeating her welcome. It was to be noticed, through all the apologies, that neither the lady nor Alexander made any attempt to bring that visit to a close; Luned because Morgan, whom she feared, had made it very clear that he must stay, and Alexander because he was fiercely determined, with all the arrogance of youth and the consuming desire that Morgan’s drugs and spider-wiles had lit in him, to plunge headlong – and publicly – into this, his first real love affair. And what a love affair! Like any young man of his age, he had looked here and there, but this was not like the passing fancies of youth. This was different! The loveliest woman he had ever seen, and she a queen, and sister to the High King! And he, chosen (as he was sure) by her, and madly in love, longed only now to be taken to her bed and thereafter declared her lover in the sight of the world – or at any rate in the sight of the other young knights of her “council”.

It was made satisfactorily clear that same evening, and in the sight of everybody in the castle. At dinner in the hall Alexander was led to the queen’s right. To his other side was one of the queen’s ladies, an elderly woman (Morgan’s waiting-women were without exception elderly or plain) who gave most of her attention to her food. Luned was on the queen’s left; she spoke little, and in fact was largely ignored by Morgan. The latter, in creamy white sparkling with diamonds, was robed as if for a victory feast. The dark hair was dressed high with jewels and some filmy veiling, and her face, expertly painted, looked, in the candle-light, like that of a girl of twenty.

Alexander could have wished for no more dazzling declaration of what was to come. The hall, not a large one, was crowded with the men of her party, and a scattering of Luned’s and Morgan’s ladies. With the High King’s guards discreetly out of sight, it could have been taken for a pleasant gathering in any lord’s hall. There was talk and laughter as the food and wine went round, but it was to be seen that few people had eyes for anyone but Morgan and the handsome young man beside her.