"It's funny to think that seeing this little room makes you know me! --But you know, I want to see your home, too. Even just one little room, like this. Is it...is everything very bright and pretty? Like the cloth you use for your dresses, I mean, all those different prints."

She's laying out the little meal as she talks. The bread is little round rolls, made with oat but sweetened with honey to make up for it not being the best white flour; the cheese is creamy; the wine just about fills up two little glasses side by side. It's funny to be doing this for herself--for herself and a friend--has she really been a queen long enough to get used to servants doing so much? Well, it's funny but it's nice. At least she knows how to do something here. "And oh, the castle. I think the king has other castles to live in? Well, of course he does, but I mean I've never seen them, just this one. Stirling. It's right between the Highlands and the Lowlands, so of course it's a good place for the king to be. It's not bad," Mary says, considering. "It's not old, less than a hundred years old, so the rooms and the kitchens and the halls are a good size. It's not like one of those places that's just made to keep soldiers in, it's made to live in too. And if we can, we'll go to a good window and look out down the cliffs."