ABSTRACT
The days are shortening: Michaelmas has passed, accounts been settled and winter setting in. Awaking at dawn, stiff but alert, Alice hears the early morning birdsong and sees light shimmering in the east. Rousing her maid, she dresses, takes her stick and leaves her chamber. The smell of freshly baked bread rises from the kitchens together with the sound of chattering and laughter. She descends to the great hall where last night’s fire is still smouldering and the boys beginning to stir from where they have slept near the warm ashes. One springs up and unbolts the door letting in a gust of bracing air.
