The music box makes Sinric smile brightly with wonder. "Oh it's beautiful. You must be so very clever."

George's green shell blushed warmth to the praise and preens with a purr.

Sinric offers Emcee his arm. "Shall we?"

Sinric's new room is up a floor and at the east end of the corridor. Inside they are frankly ridiculous. Romanesque with vaulted ceilings with edges with frescos of animals, rich tiled floors that are warm underfoot.

The cross shaped layout and columns create discreet niches - one with a large bed; another lined with books and a map of the world as known in his time painted on the wall, a third holding several large couches circling his harpsichord.

The east side opens onto a glassed-in portico with a stunning view of the snow speckled garden.

A door off the bed chamber leads to a more modern but still Romanesque bathroom with a bath easily large enough for three.