“Lia!” called a voice from behind. She turned in annoyance and saw Astrid running towards her. He was eleven years old and very short with spiky dark hair.

She stopped, frustrated. “Does the Aldermaston want to see me?” she asked.

He shook his head when he approached, out of breath. “I thought you should know,” he said, then stopped, panting. “I overhead Getman Smith talking to some of the stable hands. He did not see me. He warned them against dancing with Sowe around the maypole. He said…he threatened them, Lia. If anyone asked her but him, he would thrash them.” His little face bunched up in distaste. “He really is a coxcomb. Tell her, Lia. It is not fair that he should be the only one to dance with her.”

She scowled and nodded. “Thank you, Astrid. I will tell her.”

“What happened to your face, Lia?”

“Nothing. It is healing. Thank you, Astrid.” As he ran to his next errand, she continued on, worrying about how ravaged her face looked before seeing Colvin. The skin was peeling and coming off in flakes, especially her nose. At least the itching was gone.

She entered the orchard from the south side, crossing the even rows towards the Leering guarding the trail downward. But before she reached it, she encountered Colvin part-way. The orchard trees were thick around her, forcing her to duck and weave beneath the claw-like branches.

She tried to keep her voice light, to not betray her excitement at seeing him. “I did not bring you any food this time. If you are hungry, it is your own fault. But there may be some apples in the higher branches.”

He held up his hands and she saw he was holding two. “Muirwood apples suit me now. I have not tasted one like these since I left. The ones that grow elsewhere are either red or yellow, sometimes juicy, sometimes mush - but never this blend of colors, and never this particular taste.” He tossed one to her. She caught it, noting the blemishes and blotches around the stem.

She smelled it first, inhaling its subtle fragrance – noting the way he watched her. There was a look in his eyes that she could not make out. No anger or impatience. He seemed very calm and self-assured.

She bit into the apple and enjoyed the burst of flavor. “It is a pity you did not arrive in the spring,” she said, “when the whole orchard blooms. It is my favorite season here on the grounds, when all the oaks are budding and the apple blossoms fall so thick you think it is snowing. I think I told you before,” she said seriously, regarding the bitten piece of fruit. “That we must be near the garden where the first Parents met. It was probably the garden where we found Maderos, remember? Imagine if that was it.”

Colvin shook his head. “That has not changed. You still mock subjects that you know little or nothing about.”

With a sweet smile, she asked, “How could I know all that, if no one will teach me to read?” She took another bite. “We know so very little about those ancient days, Colvin. What would have happened if our first Parents had not bitten the apple together, at the same moment?”

“You presume it was an apple. The tomes only say ‘fruit’. There are, after all, other things they might have eaten.”

“Yes, but there is something less than forbidding to the imagination about biting into a pumpkin. What would have happened if they did not eat it at the same time? What if Father ate it first?”

“There still would have been a punishment,” Colvin countered. “That is the point, Lia, not who ate it first or what fruit it was. Maybe in another world, she took the first bite and suffered the first punishment. But you did not come all this way here to talk about the fruit of knowledge and what it means. Sit down at that stump. I owe you an explanation for my actions. You may not believe me, but I do regret that it happened. You probably believe I was a faithless knave – I am sure you did. Please…sit while we talk.”

There was a patch of grass that looked much more inviting, so she sat there, enjoying another taste of the apple and the fact that Colvin had climbed a tree to find it, and then waited for him to speak. Because of what the Aldermaston had explained that morning, she thought she knew most of it already.

He did not join her on the grass, but stood nearby, examining a branch crowned with leaves. “The day I left you, I told the Aldermaston that I would pay for your learning. He knew I was to be invested as the Earl of Forshee. It was not an issue of money that he refused me. He said he did not want to draw attention to you more than had already been done. After Winterrowd, I thought it would be safe, but he warned me that I was mistaken. Other earls would oppose Demont and rise in rebellion. It came to pass just as he said. He warned me not to reveal what you had done for me to anyone, not even Demont. It was for your protection and the protection of Muirwood. The only exception I negotiated was my sister. She knows.”