Page 46 of My Best French Wedding

“You’d think they’d want privacy,” Hildy continued. “To rule over their own little domain.”

“Probably they were more worried about controlling water access and trade routes.” He pointed at the confluence of two rivers in the valley below. “Since they weren’t building these places as vacation homes.”

Right. God forbid ye olden times people have an appreciation for leisure. “It’s still weird they could stare into each other’s windows. Or shoot a flaming arrow.” She pretended to hold a bow, adding a whooshing sound effect as her imaginary projectile took flight.

“Maybe that was the point. Keeping tabs on each other.”

“Like helicopter parents,” she suggested. “Before they had AirTags and social media.”

“A medieval mother-in-law.”

“Crazy stalker ex.”

An uncomfortable silence descended.Way to make it awkward, Hildy silently congratulated herself. You couldn’t just riff a little; it had to be a record scratch.

“I’d build a castle next to yours,” he said, as if that were a casual thing to drop into a conversation.

“To spy on me? Steal my shipments of grain? Launch a sneak attack when I least expect it?”

“Or maybe it would just be a mind game.”

“Then I’d build a moat. Filled with piranhas.”

“I’d get a catapult,” he countered.

Unfortunately, Hildy had exhausted her knowledge of siege tactics. But she wasn’t about to let him win. “You can’t arrange your whole life around me.”

“It’s a little late for that.”

Speaking of catapults! What kind of remark was that to launch at someone? “What are you talking about?”

“Forget it.” His jaw tightened, but she’d always had a knack for sneaking past Walter’s defenses.

“That’s why you started writing about weddings, isn’t it? You knew it was one of our top-performing features and you wanted to steal my thunder.”

“No, I started writing about weddings becauseyoutold me they made great stories. And I wanted to get out of tabloids because I could tell you thought I was a gutter crawler!”

“You can’t be serious!” She preferred not to think about how many choices she’d made over the years with Walter’s voice in the back of her mind.

“Yes, I can! It’s—” He broke off without finishing.

“Were you about to say, ‘it’s a free country’? But then you remembered we were in a different country?”

“France is also a free country,” he grumbled, which was not a denial.

Weird how she could read his mind sometimes and at others find herself totally in the dark about what he was thinking.

His mouth twitched in what looked like a reluctant smile. An answering expression started to bloom on her face, but luckily agust of wind blew her hair forward before he could see. Or maybe it wasn’t lucky, because now Walter was smoothing her curls away from her eyes.

“We should go find them,” she chirped, pivoting away from his searching gaze.

“Who?”

“Our people. The rest of the group. Fiona and Robbie.”

Walter looked puzzled at this change in Hildy’s MO. It wasn’t like her to cut their alone time short. She’d always been Team Prolong the Agony, but not anymore. She was evolving so hard right now. Boss Mode activated.

“You got what you needed?” He took a step back, gesturing at their surroundings, and Hildy remembered she was supposed to be doing research.