[Nesacat]

Finished last night, The Charwoman's Shadow by Lord Dunsany
... Set in the Golden Age of a mythical medieval Spain, The Charwoman's Shadow is the story of Ramon Alonzo, the son of the Lord of the Tower and Rocky Forest. The Lord is in need of gold for a dowry for his daughter, Mirandola, and he decides that Ramon Alonzo is to seek out a magician and learn how to transmute metal into gold.

In the magician's house, Ramon Alonzo is visited by the elderly charwoman who warns him about the terrible prices the magician exacts. She has lost her shadow in exchange for an extended life, and she received the bad end of the bargain, for though she is immortal, still she ages. At first, Ramon Alonzo resolves to keep his shadow, even when it turns out to be the price for learning to change metals into gold. He asks instead to learn to read and resolves to find and liberate the charwoman's shadow.

Twined with Ramon Alonzo's tale is that of his sister, who, betrothed to an unpleasant, albeit wealthy neighbour, desires the Duke of the Valley of Shadow. Mirandola works a little magic of her own after the assistance her brother lends goes awry.