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"Advantage of her?" I laughed aloud "Spink,to protect anyone, it was you! My cousin is taking advantage ofyour good nature with her outrageousa whistle at us like a street perfor your ariven no offense She is just so odd Truth to say, she embarrasses me"
"Embarrasses you! Nevare, there’s no need for that I find her oddness, well, charirl who is so direct, so honest She puts ht perhaps I had become too relaxed with her, to offer to escort her down the path without first asking your per pardon if I presumed too much fa, she is the one who presu you by your first naht to put Epiny in her place, and show her that if she behaves like a spoiled child, I intend to treat her as one And noill offer to beg your pardon, if I offended you hat I said to her"
"Me, offended? No, not at all It was just, well, you acted so strangely for a tiripped her arm as if you intended to hurt her, and the way she looked at you, as if she’d never seen you before-I was quite frightened, to tell you the truth I feared you’d do an injury to one another"
I was aghast "Spink! You knoell enough, I think, to know that I’d never harirl, let alone my own cousin!"
"I do! Yes, I do, Nevare It was just that, for a time there, you did not seem like the Nevare I know"
"Well…It was odd For an instant I didn’t feel like myself at all, either, in all honesty"
And my admission of that stunned us both into an aard silence Spinkeverywhere except at me He touched the books on the shelves, the much-used school table, and then wandered to the s He rested his hands on the sill and, looking out into the night, asked me, "Do you ever wish that you could own a home such as this? With rooms like this for your sons to learn in?"
I was a bit shocked at his words "I never thought of it I’m a soldier, Spink All my sons will be soldiers I’ll teach theht enough to rise quickly through the ranks Maybe, if one of them excels, I’ll ask my brother to speak for him and try to have him admitted to the Academy or purchase a commission for him But, no, I don’t ever expect to own a ho, I know s, and he’ll help arrange solid hters What more could a soldier son ask?"
He turned froave me a rueful smile "You have deeper roots than I, I think This beautiful home is your ancestral estate and you are still welcomed here And the way you speak of Widevale rounds there will rival this place But for s" He smiled wryly "I love the land there It’s hoiven his lordship, he chose lands that bordered the river, arable land and pastureland Land that could generate the moneys to enable him to live like a noble My mother chose with a different purpose She chose the land that surrounded the area where my father was killed His burial site was lost; his troops covered hiht be overrun by the Plainsmen and did not want them to have his bones as trophies So they buried hirave and we have never been able to discover it But she knows it is somewhere on the land that she claimed, and says that all we build or do there is ood fora stone, and when you remove that, you find two e there, but you can’t till a field or even graze sheep My brother is trying hogs and goats, but they swiftly strip the land and leave only stirred rocks behind theood idea; but he is the heir, not I"
He said this so wistfully that I had to ask, "And if the land were yours, to develop as you chose?" I felt I was teratitude for order, and yet I could not forbear froave a brief, bitter laugh "Stone, Nevare Stone is e have The idea first came to me when one of my father’s soldiers came to retire with us He looked over our land and asked another felloere growing rocks as a crop or for pleasure And it came to me then, if stone is e have, then stone is e should prosper on Our house, small and humble as it is, is built all of stone, and the walls between our so-called fields are of stone I’ve heard that the king’s road building goes slowly for lack of proper stone Well, we’ve stone in plenty"