Once again Talbot thought that she was interfering and he therefore changed the subject.
He had, up until then, had no chance of speaking to Alastair alone.
He thought that when he reached the tower he would find that it was nothing more urgent than a brick missing from one of the the battlements.
Or perhaps the standard pole had broken in a high wind.
He would tell Alastair that he wished to be told himself what was needed at The Castle and not have him or his mother eternally pointing out that something somewhere was wrong.
He noticed that the door out onto the tower was ajar.
As he went out into the sunshine, he thought for a moment that Alastair was not there.
As the centre of the tower ended with the big standard pole, it sloped upwards from the very edge of the battlements.
I
