Lalia slapped her son’s shoulder. “No need to look after that one thataway, Ferumbras my lad. She’s only interested in you because of your position and wealth.”
Ferumbras gave his mother a long-suffering sidelong glance. Had she totally forgotten what it was like to know a stirring for another? But, then, since long before his father’s death it had seemed that the only strong passion to which his mother might be stirred was for food rather than for love. How lonely his father had seemed in his last years, with her eye for the table rather than for her husband!