'Cauliflower?'
Camilla gave her a look. 'Please tell me you're not serious!'
Kara couldn't suppress an unwilling smile. 'How about berries?'
Camilla leaned forward, laughter in her eyes, and made a mock "thoughtful face." 'Hm, let me see . . . how about . . . strawberries, raspberries, blue huckleberries, gooseberries, blackberries, real blueberries, um . . . we have quince bushes, but they take years to grow . . . but tell me, little Kara, why does it give you pleasure to grow these things yourself, when you can just buy them in the markets of Port Haven?'
'Honestly?' Kara asked her, not wishing to be made fun of on this point.
Noting Kara's look, Camilla's mien sobered. 'Honestly.'
Kara thought a moment, and sighed deeply, realising that her explanation was going to sound as foolish as it seemed. 'It's a spiritual thing,' she said.
Roman frowned in surprise, even as Camilla raised an eyebrow. 'Spiritual? That sounds very pagan, little Kara.'
'I come from an ancient pagan civilization,' Kara told her. 'As do you Latins, if you go back far enough,' she reminded Camilla.
'How blasphemous! You say that as though Roman Catholicism were no more than an historic afterthought!'
'Greece and Rome were rather ancient by the time Christianity came along,' Kara said simply, 'and paganism is far more ancient still. The church may reign supreme, but it cannot wholly banish or excise the stuff our very souls are made of. Like it or not, we are all pagan by nature.'
Camilla's smile was not altogether kind. 'I was always told that children are born knowing God.'
'I've never yet met the child that didn't have to be instructed about God,' Kara rejoined.
Roman cleared his throat at this. 'The older folk will soon be inspired to lecture the two of you if you continue this conversation in their presence,' he warned quietly.
Camilla gave Kara a conspiratorial look. 'Another time, then, and other circumstances.'
Kara bit her lower lip, wondering what those "other circumstances" might be.