At this hour of the morning, the manor was only beginning to stir. A few servants moved here and there on errands for masters who were early risers, warming water for bathing or bringing up trays from the kitchens, but anyone awake at this hour walked as quietly as a ghost as they went about their business, and no one said a word as they passed each other in the halls.
Jocelynn kept waiting to be stopped. There were guards on the landings, tired men waiting for first light to signal the end of their shifts, but they did nothing more than nod as Ashlynn led Jocelynn down one winding flight of stairs after another, despite the strangeness of two cloaked women carrying a lantern and bags over their shoulders.
At the bottom of the stairs, the kitchens were warm and smelled of yeast and clean woodsmoke. There were three people awake in the kitchen, and while they all looked up when Ashlynn and Jocelynn arrived, not one of them said a word.
