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we may have unexpected visitors. Other than that, you can put the wards at whatever distance you think is best.”
    Adèle nodded again, running her hand over the frame of the door, calculating how best to provide the security Raymond wanted. “Okay, the door will be pretty straightforward, and the walls provide an easy delineation of „inside‟ and „outside‟ as far as my magic is concerned. Do you want them to extend beyond the edge of the walls on this side at all?”
    Raymond had not gotten that far in his thoughts, so they walked along the outer wall of the complex to the corner. “Not all of this is exterior wall,” Adèle commented as they walked. “Some of this is actually part of buildings.”
    “That was fairly typical,” Jean said. “To save on money and labor, the monks built the individual buildings along the periphery of the abbey and then filled in between them with an outside wall to limit access to the interior.”
    Adèle looked up, surprised. “How did you know that?”
    “Because I helped build one in Paris before I was turned,” Jean revealed, fingering the rosary in his pocket given to him by Père Emmanuel, his spiritual advisor. Even before Raymond had turned it into his repère, he kept it with him most of the time. Now he kept it with him always, knowing Raymond could always use it to find him.
    “You were a monk?” Adèle asked incredulously.
     
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    Ariel Tachna
     
    Raymond snorted as Jean shook his head. “No, but I was in the seminary. It was a different time, and if you weren‟t born into the aristocracy—and sometimes even if you were—your choices were a lot more limited than they are now. I could enter the seminary or I could starve. It wasn‟t a hard choice. At least as a priest, I would be assured of a roof over my head and something in my belly. I was turned about six months before my ordination would have taken place.”
    “Yes, but poverty, chastity, and all that? I just don‟t see it,” Adèle laughed.
    “I guess I don‟t have to see it.”
    “The Church was different then too,” Jean reminded her. “Poverty, yes, because everyone was poor then, even the king because the Vikings raided every summer, but while I wouldn‟t have been able to marry, I knew very few priests who were actually celibate. They simply didn‟t talk about it, and they gave their lovers enough perks that the lovers didn‟t either.”
    Adèle just shook her head. “If you say so. So, Raymond, have you decided where you want the wards to stop?”
    Raymond smiled at the abrupt change of subject, but he had grown used to Adèle‟s ways. “Here along the approach from the road, I think it should go at least to the tree line, maybe a little inside. We want people to come to the front gate, not go searching for a side entrance.”
    Adèle mentally calculated distances as they rounded the far corner of the wall and started down the side toward the lake. “You‟ll want to get those walls patched quickly,” she warned as they walked past a place where the stones had tumbled inward, leaving an unintended entrance into the cloister.
    “That‟s first on my list,” Raymond assured her. “I think we should follow the outer walls and then continue all the way down to the lake. That way the entire area behind the abbey will be protected for any kind of outdoor activities people want to undertake.”
    “Pétanque?” Jean teased.
    “Football,” Adèle and Raymond said in unison, sending all three of them into peals of laughter.
    “Mon Dieu, it feels good to laugh like this,” Raymond said after they calmed down. “I think you‟re right about being away from Paris, Adèle. I can feel my stress disappearing just standing here. My feet are freezing, but my stress is going.”
    “I have an idea of what needs to be done out here,” Adèle said, looking down at Raymond‟s thin loafers. “Go inside and think about what you want done in there. I‟ll find you when I‟m done