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Eddithia is Paul's mom, yes; Paul and Mary, thus Olivia’s g-ma.  If I wrote grandmother it was an accident.  I’m so confuuuuuused.  ;)
[/hider]

[color=tan]"The gates have long been closed by now..."[/color]

Olivia’s comment about the gates --obviously the castle gates -- didn’t strike Winston as unusual: there were many Nobles residing -- short or long term -- within the castle who [i]weren’t[/i] Barkers.  But when Olivia identified herself as the Count’s daughter, the knight’s eyes widened in horror at his error in judgement.  As his transgression sunk in he began babbling, almost incoherently, before suddenly pulling the shorter of his two swords from its scabbard, dropping to his knees before Olivia, and presenting the blade before him on flattened, up raised palms, much as he had when Duke Cranston had knighted him.

“[i]Please[/i], m’lady,” he spoke, his words finally clear.  “I have no excuse for my trespass.  I can never made amend for such behavior.  Please … I beg of you…”

Winston presumed that Olivia understood he meant for her to take his life for having berated her father in her presence, thereby offending her indirectly.  Men had been executed for far less...