““Night wrapped around the proud towers. Joanna took a taper and held it to the fire, set it to a candlewick. Standing, candle in one hand, she held out the other to Alex. He took it and went with her wordlessly. They climbed a coiling staircase so old the stones sloped gently in the centers where generations of feet had walked up and down them, and came at last to a room that took up the entire uppermost floor of the tower. “This,” Joanna said quietly as she opened the ironbound door and stepped beyond, “is the oldest part of Hawkforte. Legend has it the first Lord of Hawkforte and his lady shared this chamber. Ever since, it has been occupied only by the present lord after he marries.” “Are there spirits who would mind us being here?” he asked with a smile. “They would welcome us,” she said, and went around the room, lighting the candles set in wall sconces until the room was bathed in their gentle glow. An immense bed stood at its center, hung with richly embroidered curtains and covered with furs. Joanna walked toward it, turned, and faced Alex. “I love you,” she said. “I just thought I ought to say that and I wanted it to be here, in this place.” “I love you, too,” he replied matter-of-factly because it was that way to him now, a simple fact of his life.””
