“That has naught to do with our castle,” said the lady wonderingly. “Look—the keep is no higher than your roof-tree. My lord chose not the site for its loftiness but for the sure foundation.”
“Aye,” chuckled the old woman, “you say well, 'tis a good foundation. All but that corner. Tell your lord to raise no towers on that corner.”
“I am sorry the wall has given so much trouble,” Lady Philippa said regretfully, “for that is the only place for my garden—my roses and violets and herbs. My lord will try once more to finish it. If I might have but that piece of garden it would be like a bit of my old home, and that is a dear treasure, Mother Izan, in a foreign land.”
Her voice trembled as she spoke, and Eleanor pressed close to her mother's side and held her hand. She had never heard a word before about her mother's longing for Provence.
As the three rode away old Izan stood for a long time, shading her eyes and gazing after them. Next morning a village boy in charge of Roger came up the path to her door, leading two bleating bewildered goats, which were securely fastened to a stake to graze at will.
“I came myself,” said Roger loftily, “because I meant to make sure that it was all right. I haven't forgotten the time you cured my leg, Mother Izan, and neither has father. Have those blue-tit eggs hatched yet?”
The old woman's brown withered face crinkled in a smile. “Trust you, Master Roger!” she muttered. “Come still.”
She hobbled around to the rear of the cottage and paused to draw aside a branch. Roger cautiously peered through the leaves, and a hiss like that of an angry snake sounded within.
“If I didn't know it was a bird I should think there was a snake or a cross cat in there,” said Roger, after he had had a look at the small but spirited bird-mother. “What ever makes her do that, Mother Izan?”
Old Izan put out a gnarled hand to feed the titmouse a few live insects. “Same as an old woman don't mind folk saying she's a witch so they let her alone, mayhap,” she said. “You'd not reach your hand in there if 'twas an adder's nest, I reckon.”