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a safe place in times of threat. It is—’ But I had said enough. This was the secret place of my family, my kin, my ancestors. He might be charming and likeable, but he was still a Norman and therefore potentially an enemy.
    ‘Your grandmother is buried over there?’ He nodded over the water.
    ‘Yes. Shall I show you?’
    ‘Go on.’
    I led the way across the planks. I could see Edild, standing quite still at the head of the grave. The young woman’s body, once more covered with the coarse linen, lay beside it. I wondered if Edild was in a light trance and thought I ought to warn her of our approach.
    ‘That’s my aunt Edild,’ I said loudly. ‘I went to fetch her as soon as I’d made the discovery, and she offered to wait here while I went for help. She’s—’
    Edild turned to look at me. ‘No need to shout, Lassair,’ she said quietly. ‘I heard you coming when you were still some way off.’
    ‘Edild, this is Sir Alain de Villequier,’ I said, flustered. ‘Sir Alain, my aunt Edild.’
    ‘Good morning, sir,’ Edild said calmly, as if she greeted important Normans every day of her life.
    ‘Good day, Edild,’ Sir Alain replied.
    She made a graceful gesture, indicating the grave. ‘That is where the dead young woman was placed.’ She pointed to the body on the grass. ‘My niece and I removed her from the ground so that we could unwrap the shroud and see who she was. We did not recognize her.’
    Sir Alain knelt down in the grass and very gently folded the linen away from the dead face. He stared at her for some moments. His back was turned to Edild and me, and I could not see his expression. After a while he stood up, cleared his throat and said, ‘Her name was Ida. She was a seamstress in the employ of Lord Gilbert’s cousin, the lady Claude, who has recently come to our area and is staying at Lakehall.’
    I’m not sure, but I thought I saw him pass a hand over his face before he turned around to us. I knew then that this dead Ida had cast her spell over him as well, just as she had done over Lord Gilbert and Lady Emma. He, too, had cared about her; he, too, would miss her.
    Impulsively, I said, ‘She must have been such a lovely girl.’
    He looked down, and I could not see his expression. ‘Why do you say that?’ His voice sounded gruff.
    Because you’re all grieving over her death , I could have told him. But it wasn’t my place to make such an intimate remark, and instead I said, ‘I studied her face, and she looks like somebody who laughed a lot and brought sunshine into other people’s lives.’
    He turned away from me and stared down at the dead girl. He looked at her for some moments. Then he said heavily, ‘She did. She—’ It was as if he, too, had suddenly recalled our relative positions in the world, for whatever he had been going to say, he bit it back. I thought he made an effort to control himself – I saw a sort of shudder go through him – and then he said curtly to Edild, ‘Well? Have you studied the body? Have you anything to tell me concerning how she died?’
    Edild and I exchanged a quick glance – I could tell she was as taken aback as I was by Sir Alain’s abrupt change in demeanour – and then she stepped forward and crouched down beside the body. ‘I have,’ she said neutrally. She beckoned – to him, I believe, but I, too, took it as a summons – and Sir Alain and I knelt down either side of her.
    My aunt began to speak, and straight away I felt calmer, for her voice had taken on the tone that it adopts when she is teaching me something new. I dare say she did it purposefully, for she must have sensed how unsettled I was by that morning’s discovery and she would have wanted to soothe me. It was only later that I realized she also wanted me to be fully alert so that I did not miss anything.
    ‘Death was by strangulation,’ she began, moving the long hair away from the dead girl’s neck with a tender hand. She pointed, and I saw the deep