There's also a forum topic with additional musings about the question, including my own thoughts, if you want to try to guess how I voted.

Mind you, my vote is not necessarily indicative of the future of the story. These characters often do surprise me. Leofric and Hetty??? I never would have guessed!

And especially since we haven't seen Egelric and Gunnilda together in years, there might be a whole lot of barely-suppressed longing we haven't seen.

The closest I can offer to an answer to that question is the chapter "Alred announces the news". Egelric's reaction to Gunnilda's marriage is quite... calm. Alred even tries to rile a response out of him:

"I never said a good woman can’t love a scoundrel.  Consider my wife!”

“Gunnilda doesn’t—”  Egelric froze and looked up, as if considering whether his voice would carry as far as the bedchamber above.

“Oh, doesn’t she?” Alred said softly.

“I never promised her nor do I owe her anything.”

“Tell me you don’t care for her.”

“I don’t!”

“Ah!  You said that rather quickly!”

“And if I had hesitated, you would have crowed over that, too!  What is this about, Alred?  Did you ride all this way only for this?”

That chapter really was all about Alred and his bitterness and jealousy. Egelric was his stony self, so it's almost impossible to say what he was feeling at that moment.

There are some awesome pictures of Egelric in that chapter though. Alred is a nervy little dude to dare pissing off that guy.

I voted 'Maybe at one time, but no longer'.

Yes, they had a spark between them at one point, but all that passed by as their priorities changed, along with circumstances.

Besides, they'll never be happy together. Gunnie would feel 'obliged' in the marital bed, as she has been with both husbands.
And Egelric's got this black cloud over him, that makes him think he's 'cursed' all the time and will never be happy in love. (look at his track record)

I loved Alwy and his simple ways. Nothing can match that. He was so uncomplicated, giving life a rosy glow.

You should do a poll for the Araphel/Osh/Flann love triangle too. Is Iylaine the same way about sex? She didn't seem all that excited about making out with Malcolm back in her early teens, so it makes me wonder how she is now.

I plan on doing a Araphel/Osh/Flann poll once voting on this one has settled. Got to get those love triangles out of the way.

Iylaine is not so much like Gunnilda in that respect. She is not so naive about sex, anyway. They talked about it in "Malcolm declares an end to the tyranny of peas", a few months after their wedding:

"Didn’t Gunnilda talk to you before the wedding?”

“Aye, but I don’t think she knows very much about it either,” she said confidingly.  “She said it was rather dreadful, but I had to do it if I wanted any babies, and also because you were my husband and I had to do what you liked.”

“Oh, no!”  Malcolm finally fell back onto the grass beside her, the easier to laugh.

“But I knew it must not have been so dreadful, because I can hear what goes on in that castle, and I think at least some of the people like it.”

“Baby, you’re too funny today.  I hope you like it!”

“I suppose so.  Unless you simply haven’t reached the dreadful parts yet?” she asked wickedly.

“God help me!” he laughed.

Iylaine has "her moments" though. She is very hormonal, you might say, due to being an elf.

She has moments like in "Iylaine sees what she wants" when she goes totally wildcat and throws herself at Malcolm:

She closed her eyes and tried to find his mouth with hers, but their faces were slippery, and even his stubbly chin was sleek with rain.  She dug the nails of one hand into his back to keep it from sliding across his wet skin, and with the other she hung onto his hair, squeezing great fistfuls of it, kneading the water into it.

Her gentle Malcolm was no less ferocious with her.  He tipped her off balance until her bare feet scrabbled in the mud and she had no choice but to hang onto him.  He tugged on her wet hair with his free hand, tipping her head back so he could nip at her neck.

She tried to struggle with him, to see what he would do.  He only growled at her and held her tighter.

Iylaine sobbed in relief....

She wanted to lie down with him, to stay with him, and to sleep with him for more hours than she would spend alone while he went off giving light to others.

“And take me to bed,” she whispered.

“Aye, Baby.”

She had never felt a love or a longing like this.  She did not want to die.  She only wanted him.

And other times, like in "Malcolm goes on", she is really frigid with him. (Shades of Elfleda.)

He felt a surge of strength swell up with his anger, and it only sharpened his desire.  She was his wife, and he was her husband—her master.  He thought it would do her good to be reminded of it.

But except for her size, she was stronger than he, and he did not think his size alone would allow him to forcibly take her without great violence.  He could think of nothing uglier than raping one’s own wife.

In any event—though she came to him at times with overwhelming passion—though she sometimes seemed hopelessly dependent on his presence, falling on him as soon as he walked through the door in the evenings, as if she could scarcely have gone on living without him—he sometimes thought that with her darting eyes she was only looking for a good excuse to hate him.

Thus he had to go on submitting to her and obeying her, like “the loll-tongued lap-dog of her” as his brother sometimes sneered, until he so despised himself that it no longer came as a surprise when she seemed to despise him.

And still he loved her—madly, wildly, as if he knew he would not have her long.

Careful François or you're going to ruin the story for yourself by reading these forums! You already know Lili dies.

I think, if this story ever ends, it would be a nice "Epilogue" chapter to have ancient Egelric and little old Gunnilda sitting around together and reminiscing about olden times. Would be even nicer if I never quite made it clear whether they were married at last, or just old friends sharing a gossip around the fire...

Doh! I guess I should have put the Malcolm/Iylaine snippets over in the other poll. Or not... maybe I need to let go of my obsessively categorizing Virgo-nature and let the discussion flow.

I would love to do more with Malcolm's family, but he can't leave the valley. He's not happy about it, either. Behold, "Malcolm finds a thorn":

“Baby,” he sighed, “must we discuss this now?  I’m trying to write a letter to my brother.”

“Oh, well, he’s more important than anything,” she grumbled.

At last the hollow shaft of the feather buckled and bent over his finger, spoiling his quill.  Malcolm tossed it down in disgust.

The difficulty in writing to his brother was precisely in that he was not more important than a certain number of things, and Colban resented it.  He had not been pleased by Malcolm’s decision to remain in Lothere, for he had always imagined them inseparable as adults, as their father and their cousin Malcolm often were.  But he had not been able to forgive Malcolm’s announcement that he could not, as far as he knew, ever leave the valley again so long as the elf Vash lived.

Malcolm had not been able to attend his twin brother’s wedding.  He would not be able to attend his first niece or nephew’s christening in the coming summer.  He would not meet any of his youngest siblings until, perhaps, they were grown enough to make the journey themselves.  And, most unforgivably, he would likely never see his mother again on this earth.

Iylaine might not have realized it, but she had chosen a very poor moment to feel sorry for herself because a few elves she had never met had not yet bothered or not yet dared to call on her.

Somebody was saying the other day that Iylaine is beginning to resemble Elfleda, and I agree.

And Malcolm is being Egelric all over again, trying to repress his own needs and desires, trying to do anything he can think of that will keep her happy and keep their home life pleasant. And just like Egelric, I think there is quite a volcanic person hidden away in Malcolm, and if he keeps stuffing it away like this, one day he is going to erupt. Elfleda killed herself before Egelric ever did, but Iylaine might not be that lucky.

However, I will grant her that she is at least not deliberately cruel to him. She is very selfish and self-centered and doesn't even realize when she hurts him, but she doesn't try to hurt him.

Hmm, all of this is making me want to do some Iylaine and Malcolm chapters. I have some big ones planned, but prob. not till the end of the month.

Oh, as for the discussions on the polls, there is a link "Polls" in the right sidebar. If you click that you get a list of the titles. If you go to the poll you want the discussion is right beneath it. If you want to get to the discussion on the current poll you can just click the "14 comments" link below the poll in the middle sidebar. The "Older Polls" link right beneath it also takes you to the same place as the "Polls" link in the right sidebar.

Wow, Devin, that is a violent interpretation of "erupt". Egelric has never hit a woman after all, has he?

I don't want to speculate too much about what Malcolm might do (though I don't really see him being a wife-beater either), but I can envision some situation where Iylaine does some straw-that-broke-the-camel's-back sort of thing, and Malcolm will just blow up. And all of Iylaine's princessy whining and foot-stomping will be nothing in the face of that storm. Unfortunately I am not sure Iylaine would have the wisdom to learn her lesson at that point, and rather than becoming humble she will just turn out to hate him.

I'm not saying any of that will happen of course. I have some other ideas, and though I am not sure whether they will be good for that marriage, at least they aren't looking like an eruption from this distance.

Did I ever say Egelric was close to hitting her? Maybe I did, but I don't remember it. It isn't safe to assume he would have, just because their marriage was tumultuous. As accomplished as he is in the beating-up of men, I don't see Egelric doing it with women. He has other "issues" but not that one, really. Let's just say bitchy women trigger a different reaction in him than the desire to pound on them with his fists.

Leila and Leof didn't get a divorce since they were technically never married at all. I don't see how Malcolm and Iylaine could get a divorce, unless somehow the Church actually decided that Iylaine truly was married to Vash beforehand, and then her marriage with Malcolm could be annulled. But that seems all but impossible -- Iylaine wasn't even old enough to understand, much less consent, and it was certainly no Christian wedding. Aed managed to extract Maire from her marriage with Malcolm (via annulment, not divorce), but that was Aed Almighty, and I think even the bishop listens to him.