Montinore had been a mansion before the Change, built long ago on mining profits as a country retreat and then the headquarters of a vineyard in the days of the Pinot Noir boom, a neoclassical house with white walls and tall pillars in front. Not many modifications had been necessary to make it the manor of the home estate at the core of the barony; adding a Great Hall at the rear, and outbuildings. The village a little to the east on the flats adjacent to the Five Great Fields was nearly all new, though. You could see the bell tower of the church, and a little of its red-tile roof, which was near enough for the outdoor servants to live there. The house faced southeast, but if she had walked out onto the lawn she could have seen the watch lights on the grim square towers of Castle Ath, on its hill half a mile west.

“Glad I finally talked you into moving down from the castle?” Delia said. “And it took a year.”

“You’re always right, sweetie. Though I have fond memories of the place; we met there, after all. And it was wartime.”

The gardens and rolling lawns were still here around the mansion; better, if anything, under Delia’s supervision. And the vineyards to the north that were the most valuable part of the manor’s demesne farm. Delia had always been good at keeping the reeves and bailiffs and castellans and stewards honest and up to the mark.

“Always nice to see Conrad and Sandra in a setting that isn’t entirely business,” Tiphaine said, looking after the coach.

Though they’d come out here with her partly precisely to occupy the traveling time with consultations.

Strictly speaking I should be going back with them. Damned if I’ll cut the flying visit that short, though. I’m going to spend at least forty-eight hours with my sweetie, after all this time in the field!

“I wish they could have stayed longer,” Delia said. “And that Conrad could have brought Valentinne and the children.”

“We’re all a little busy, right now,” Tiphaine said as they turned to go back in; she offered her arm, and Delia slid hers through it.

I’d have made the same call. The situation is just too volatile right now. I’ll be leaving soon and leaving Delia alone again. Rehab in Bethany took a lot longer than I thought it would. And it’s going to cost something fierce, the Sisters put the screws to the nobility so they can heal the poor for free. Delia will have a cow if I don’t warn her before the bill gets here. She manages the place well and that means she cares about the details.