and then she came into view drying her hands on her light blue apron as she reached the doorstep.
'I'm sorry but I've not finished the last batch,' she said. 'You'll have to come back—'
Winterburne smiled at Alyssa as she looked out at him and their eyes met.
The look of surprise on her face was clear, and a flash of excitement seemed to pass across it for the briefest of moments. Then, the look was gone, replaced by a look that could have been chiselled from marble.
'What do you want?' she asked.
'I've come back.'
'Why should I care?'
Winterburne was shocked. In truth, he hadn't expected that sort of a welcome and had hoped that things would have been easier.
'I thought—'
'I know what you thought. You thought that you could just come back here and pick up where you left off? Is that it?' Alyssa looked indignant. 'Well, life's not like that, Thomas Winterburne,' she said, 'and neither am I.'
Alyssa's eyes were large and bright but there was also a sadness in them. As he watched them he thought he could read that they were pleading with him, asking for something, but Winterburne found it hard to find the right words to say to her.
A moment more passed and then he said, 'I missed you.'
'Really!' she said. 'You missed me? You missed me so much that you didn't even bother to send me a letter, or any other word for that matter. Anything could have happened to you and I could have gone to my grave never knowing whether you were alive or dead.'
Was that a little concern in her voice? he wondered.
'Would you have read it if I had sent a letter?'
The woman stared at Winterburne and then she seemed to relax just a little. 'Probably not,' she said. A smirk crossed her face, and then left again. 'But that's not the point.'
Winterburne stared into her dark soulful eyes. They were as beautiful as he remembered them to be and he could even now feel himself slipping into their deep pools. He was glad that he was back, and despite the welcome she had given him he knew that he had done the right thing coming to see her.
'I'm not very good at this, am I?' he said.
'No, you're not!' The defensive tone in Alyssa's voice had gone, replaced by a softer, warmer note. 'In fact, you're even worse than that.'
'Can I come in?' Winterburne smiled again. 'Just for a little while. We probably need to talk.'
'We probably do.'
'Can I then? Just for a minute or two?'
'It's really messy. I'm up to my neck in washing, which is already late, and if I'm not careful I'll be lucky if I even get paid for my efforts.' She raised her hand, puffing her cheeks and pushing the hair out of her eyes.
'Don't worry about that. If they won't pay you then I will instead.'
'No you will not! I'm not a charity, Thomas!'
'I know that,' Winterburne said. 'I just wanted to see you. I couldn't wait any longer.' The two of them had still not broken eye contact.
'For goodness sakes,' Luke said, stepping between the two of them, 'life is too short to dance around the matter like this, and you two are worse than...well, I don't quite know what.'
He pointed at Winterburne.
'You,' he said, moving his finger to point at his mother. 'Do you love her?'
Winterburne looked back at Alyssa and smiled.
'Yes,' he said, 'very much.'
Luke then pointed at his mother. Alyssa grinned, her own eyes were still staring back at Winterburne.
'And you've been like a love-sick puppy ever since he's been gone.' He shook his head. 'Do you love him?'
Alyssa's cheeks reddened. 'Yes,' she said. She lowered her eyes.
'Then it is settled,' Luke said, 'I now pronounce you something, and whatever.'
He waved his hand over the two of them, and then looked at Winterburne.
'You may kiss the bride.'
Winterburne grabbed Alyssa and pulled her close, laughing as he lifted her from the ground.
Luke tutted, shaking his head as he watched the two of them.
21
As Winterburne entered the office, Emperor Frederick was leaning over his desk with his back towards him, a large sheet of parchment stretched across the desktop held at each corner by one of his favourite crystal brandy glasses. Frederick turned his head to look at him briefly as he closed the door, but there was no hint of recognition in his eyes and it was as if the time that he had spent away from the city had not even existed.
'I've been thinking,' Frederick said. 'Something must have happened to make Ysabel decide that she had to declare war.'
Winterburne stepped away from the door and made his way across to the desk.
'Cromwell told me that there had been another attack on her troops in the hills, north of Brunswick.' As he approached the desk he could now see that Frederick had been poring over a hand-drawn map of the Empire. 'Isn't that enough reason?'
'Of course,' Frederick replied, 'but we both know that it wasn't by our people.'
He ran his finger over the map until it reached the area that represented the hills he had spoken of, and then tapped his index finger on the parchment.
'I looked her in the eye, Winterburne. I told her that I was not behind this and I could tell that she believed me at the time.' He looked up. 'Something fundamental has changed, something much more obscure than what appears to be before us.'
'Like what, Sire?'
'I do not know.'
'Troops have been committed now, haven't they?' Winterburne leaned over the map on the desk, finding his bearings on the drawing. 'It's a bit late for negotiation I should have thought.'
'Nonsense. It's never too late for negotiation, Winterburne, you of all people should know that.' Fredrick looked down at the map again. 'I'm gambling on the fact that Ysabel will not cross the border with her army. She has no reason. And, as long as she does not, then neither shall we give her one.'
Winterburne nodded. 'A stalemate, then.'
'Yes. A stalemate.'
Frederick tapped his finger on the map, close to the city of Brunswick, near the border.
'However,' he continued, 'the declaration of war, in some small way, could turn out to be a good thing.'
'I don't understand how that can be the case.'
'Well,' Frederick said, 'while the generals on both side are spying on each other across the border it will mean that whoever is driving these events cannot commit further atrocities in the hills. Or at least, if they do, they cannot be attributable to us.'
'Perhaps,' Winterburne replied, 'but it's a big assumption.'
'It is.' Frederick smiled. 'But, I've been thinking. Tell me where on this map you think the best place would be to hide enough men that could wipe out a sizeable body of troops, and to then allow those same men to melt away into smoke, without being caught.'
Winterburne looked across the map and then pointed at the hills to the north and east of Brunswick.
'Here seems the most obvious place, of course, based on the locations of the attacks, anyway.'
'Precisely.' Frederick stood and crossed his arms. 'If we can find the men that have done this, and offer them some sort of deal, then perhaps we might still convince the Queen that we had no hand in the attacks.'
'And then you think she would have no choice but to call off her armies.'
Frederick smiled.
'What sort of deal?' Winterburne frowned.
'An amnesty. Gold perhaps. Anything it takes.'
Winterburne nodded.
Frederick continued, 'If someone could find them in the hills and initiate some sort of negotiation, then I'm hopeful that it might work.'
At that moment, a bell sounded in Winterburne's head. Cromwell had been right and Frederick had needed him to return, but it was not for the reason that either of them had expected.
'You want me to go, don't you?'
Frederick lifted his eyes and looked at him. 'Are you volunteering?'
'Do I have a choice?'
/> 'Come now, Winterburne, you know I don't work that way.' Frederick chuckled. 'Well,' he said, 'are you volunteering?'
Winterburne sighed and closed his eyes briefly. Just when he thought that he had a chance to get his life back on track, and now this.
He looked at Frederick. 'I have to, don't I? I mean, this is now bigger than just you and I.'
'It is.' Frederick put his hand on Winterburne's shoulder. 'And, the Empire needs a son that it can trust to do this thing...for the sake of everyone.'
Winterburne looked down at his feet and shook his head. He looked up at Frederick. 'Alright,' he said, 'I'll do it.'
Frederick smiled back at him. 'Thank you, Thomas,' he said.
'This is not going to go down well with Alyssa.'
'What do you mean?'
'I've just got back to the city, taken the first steps towards fixing my broken relationship with her, and now I've got to tell her that I'm going away again. This time for God knows how long. Hell, I might not even come back.'
'The Empire will be forever in your debt.'
Winterburne covered his face with his hands, puffing his cheeks and grimacing as he thought of having to face Alyssa. He looked at Frederick, and shook his head again.
'I'll have to take an assumed name, of course,' he said, chewing on his bottom lip. 'I expect that my real one would be recognised by every major player this side of the mountains.'
'The other side too, I would have thought,' Frederick added. 'Do you have any ideas of the name you would use?'
'I guess I know already.'
'Oh, do tell.'
'My second name is Richard, so that's easy.' Winterburne had not used his birth surname in close to twenty-five years, but to him, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. 'My real name is Smyth. It was also my father's trade.'
'Richard Smyth,' Frederick said, nodding. 'I like that. Richard