her comb aside, braided her hair in two neat plaits.
'Someone must gather the herbs for the poultices, the tonics, and the medicines needed here,' Wynne told her sister. 'You will be expected to do such things in your husband's house, Caitlin. I have tried to teach you, but you show no interest. A good chatelaine knows how to care for her people.'
'My husband will be rich,' Caitlin replied. 'I will have serfs to gather the herbs and serfs to make these concoctions you are always babbling about.'
'I will too!' Dilys piped up.
Wynne sighed. There was no arguing with either of her sisters. Their thoughts did not extend beyond their own needs.
'Have you made up your mind then to accept Rhys's generous offer and cease behaving like a fool?' Caitlin asked. 'Not that he will not have you if he wishes it; but if you fight with him, he may not give us our husbands.'
'I will accept the lord of St. Bride's with as good a grace as possible, Caitlin, though if I had another choice, I should take it,' Wynne told her sister bluntly. Caitlin's preoccupation with herself was particularly irritating today.
'Then perhaps, my child, that is the answer you sought for,' said Enid, overhearing Wynne as she entered the hall.
'There seems to be no other,' Wynne agreed, 'but I had hoped to marry for love, Grandmother.'
'You are incorrigible,' Caitlin told her elder sister, and her tone was decidedly unsympathetic. 'You do have, however, a saving grace in that you are sensible to a fault in the end. Now that you have finally come to terms with yourself, having given us all a most difficult time, be certain that you gain the marriage contracts for Dilys and for me from Rhys before you wed him, lest he try to cheat us out of our due.'
'Yes, Wynne,' Dilys added. 'You must not sell yourself cheaply, but gain the best price for us all from Rhys.'
'I will do better than you desire,' Wynne told her sisters. 'I will insist you are both wed first and well- established in your husbands' households before I marry Rhys. Does that not please you?' she said, and her tone was slightly mocking, but Caitlin and Dilys did not notice it.
'Aye!' Caitlin smiled broadly at her eldest sibling. 'That is most practical of you, sister!'
'Aye!' Dilys echoed.
'Will I have a husband one day, sister?' little Mair, who had been listening to their exchange unnoticed, asked.
'Aye!' Wynne smiled at the youngest of them all. 'You shall have a fine young lordling who will ride into Gwernach and sweep you away to be his bonny bride.'
'What nonsense!' muttered Caitlin.
'I want lots and lots of babies,' Mair announced.
'And you shall have them, my lambkin, if that is your desire.' Wynne laughed, ruffling Mair's light brown hair with its pretty golden lights.
'See!' Mair stuck her tongue out at Caitlin, who was in too good a mood now to be bothered by the child.
'You have come to your decision just in time,' she told Wynne. 'Rhys will certainly be here tomorrow.'
'Nay,' Wynne answered. 'He will not come until the full moon.'
'Tomorrow,' Caitlin replied. 'You have lost count of the days, sister.'
For a moment Wynne had a sinking feeling, but then she drew upon her deep well of courage and laughed weakly. 'If tomorrow night is the full moon, Caitlin, then I have indeed lost track of my time.'
'Well, I have not,' Caitlin said tartly. 'I long for the day when I may be married to Rhys's rich cousin and leave Gwernach for my own home. That time cannot come quickly enough for me.'
'And me,' echoed Dilys.
Wynne shook her head sadly. She could think of nothing harder for her than having to leave Gwernach behind, and yet her sisters were eager to do so.
'Do not think badly of them, my child,' her grandmother said quietly as Caitlin and Dilys turned back to their own pursuits. 'You are the eldest and it is only natural that you love Gwernach better than they do. They know that it is unlikely that either of them will ever inherit these lands. It, therefore, has no hold on them, and they are anxious to have a place that they may call their own.'
'But I will not inherit Gwernach either,' Wynne noted, 'and yet I love it.'
'With God's blessing, child, you will not inherit, but there is always that chance that Dewi may not reach his manhood, or not produce heirs. If that should happen, then you will be Gwernach's mistress. That is a possibility, but the chance of both you and Dewi dying and leaving Gwernach to Caitlin is slight. Your sister is no fool. A shrew, perhaps, but no fool.'
'And speaking of that scamp brother of mine,' Wynne said, 'I have not seen him since my return from the forest. Where can he have gotten to, Grandmother?'
'He said he was going birding this afternoon,' Enid answered.
'Did Einion accompany him?'
'Nay, child, it was not necessary. Dewi would have been deeply insulted by such a gesture. You are overprotective of your brother, Wynne. He may yet be a boy, but he is lord of Gwernach nonetheless and should be treated as such. Besides, Einion was giving Mair her riding lesson, and the child would have been heartbroken had she not been able to have it. She loves that fat pony of hers greatly,' Enid finished with a smile. Her youngest grandchild was her admitted pet.
Wynne glanced through a window in the hall and frowned. It had become overcast and, although she could see no sunset, the sky was already darkening with impending night. 'Einion,' she called to the big man as he entered the hall. 'Have you seen my brother?'
'Nay, lady, not since he departed, but I shall go into the courtyard and ask. He may be in the stables.' Einion returned the way he had come.
'I know it is foolish of me, Grandmother, and I realize I am oversolicitous of Dewi's well-being, but he is my responsibility! If anything should happen to him before he reached his manhood, I should feel that I had failed my parents in my duty to Gwernach. I cannot bear the thought that I should profit at my brother's expense. Can you understand that?' Wynne's usually serene features were distorted with her distress.
'I do understand, my child,' Enid assured her granddaughter, but in her heart she was angry at the unkind fate that had burdened this young girl with so much accountability at so young an age. And she was angry at her late son, God assoil him, for Wynne had been his favorite and he had instilled in her a passion for Gwernach that could never be satisfied. It was a hard world in which they lived, and children died easily. That Owain and Margiad had produced healthy children was both a blessing and a miracle; but Dewi and Mair were yet young and vulnerable. If accident or disease took them before their maturity, Wynne could not hold herself responsible, and Enid told her so, squeezing her granddaughter's hand as she spoke to reassure her, but she could see in Wynne's foresty green eyes that although the girl nodded her agreement, she did not really accept Enid 's attempt to set her mind at rest.
Einion returned, saying, 'The young lord is not yet back, lady.'
Wynne paled and, looking again to the window, said worriedly, 'Night has fallen. What if something has happened to Dewi? What if he is lying injured and frightened? We must send out a search party to seek him immediately!'
“Lady,'' Einion told her gently,'' the night is dark and thick with clouds. Were it not so, the young lord could walk home himself once the moon had risen, and should the overcast be dispelled in the next few hours, he may very well do so. I do not believe him injured, for he is a careful lad when climbing, though you may not think it so, knowing him otherwise.'
'But he is so little,' Wynne fretted. 'He is alone and in the dark. We must find him!'
'Einion is right, my child,' Enid said matter-of-factly, but in her secret heart she worried too. Still, it would do Wynne no good to know that. Enid signaled the servants to begin serving the evening meal, and shepherded her family to the high board.
Caitlin and Dilys chattered endlessly on as the food was served.
'Do you think,' Dilys ventured, 'that the lord of Llyn is a handsome fellow? Oh, I hope he is handsome! I cannot bear that which is ugly.'
'What difference does it make?' Caitlin snapped. 'If his purse is full, if he is generous to you, and if his lance is
