“Here…sit by me,” Mother hissed, the words coming through tight-closed lips. “Father must not be disturbed when about his business at any cost, or we’ll all pay.”
The mouse-like housemaid came over to fill the boy’s beaker with milk. He took a chunk of bread from the basket, then cheese from a platter.
“Where are Fernan and Alvar?” he whispered.
“Shush, keep your voice down. They have already eaten and gone to the manor house past the big river. There’s a sergeant there today, and Father has arranged fencing practice for them…”
Garcia Alvarez de Albornoz belonged to an important Castilian family who served the kings of Castile and Aragon throughout the century at a time of tension between the two kingdoms who remained separate until 1469. The master of the house was a man ‘of landed as
