I for once have no suggestions, Cecily is now carrying Ceadwulf's child and that's good enough for me. But isn't it possible for her to move to Lothere?

What about Yware and Connie or Yware and Ullach?

Yware is not a bad idea, since I already sort of had the idea that he has Alred's flirtiness without Alred's sensitivity and delicacy of feeling. However, he's in Denmark right now and I can't get him to Lothere any sooner than next spring. It would certainly serve him right though -- the big city slicker waltzing into the valley and getting a slate broken over his head by a little provincial girl.

I could see it happening to Cearball too... I do have the feeling he flirts blindly, never knowing whether the woman is attracted to him or not -- the opposite of Leofric -- and just happens to have a lot of luck because he is a rather handsome fellow. I am sure he gets bopped over the head on occasion too. But I don't want to do that to him right now because he now has a nemesis in the form of Egelric, and that's not going to be funny.

As for Egelric, it would probably depend on the woman too much to say. He seems to think they're mostly all depraved, so if he found one who protested that she was not, he might try to prove to her she was, as he did with Maire. I don't think Egelric is in a mood to have his little theory about women disproven. That's another case where it probably would be more agonizing to watch, rather than an amusing little serves-you-right tale.

If by Sonia you mean Sophie, she's staying with Edris right now since Stein is still on Eirik's island with him. Hmm I don't know -- she would definitely bite back if a man tried to hit on her, and not only because she's Sophie but also because she's rather in love with Stein. However, would a man would hit on a woman who literally killed her first husband?

Lena would be an interesting choice. I could certainly imagine men hitting on her since she's just a mistress. She's quite loyal to Aengus on one hand, but then again she has been raised up to be a concubine, so who knows how she would deal with that conundrum.

What about Edris herself, actually? That would be kind of funny.

I know, I know, we are desperately needing some more young adult / adult women in the valley. I am forced to get the young girls started quite young, which doesn't always sit well with me or the rest of you.

If anyone has any ideas of how to get more ladies, please please tell me! I could import some more Scots but I think the clan has learned the lesson of Cat and Flann, so that seems unlikely. I know of one unmarried noble woman who will be joining us early next spring, but one woman is not going to help much.

Oh yeah, I totally meant Sophie. It's funny, as I was typing "Sonia", I was thinking to myself that it didn't seem like the sort of name that would pop up in medieval Europe.

But someone like Cearball who is new to the valley might not know that she killed her first husband.

Urgh, is Egelric really going to go after Cearball because of Maire? What if he hurts Cearball's beautiful face? Well, actually, I'm not worried about Cearball's face nearly as much as I am about Egelric's psychology. He really seems to be in a downward spiral.

Someone needs to talk to Egelric, maybe a visit from all 3 of his wives might do the trick. But Matilda's visit has caused Alred to miss her even more though.

What about Edris now that she's single she could have an affair with a younger guy how about her steward?

Then there are few women in the valley who will say no. Look at Cecily she tried to resist Caedwulf but in the end he managed to get that bed rocking and her pregnant (Maud's going to be a grandmother twice in the same year! ). Connie possibly Gwynn and Margaret might say no. But a girl like Kraaia might say the exact opposite especially if Cedric asked her to do the nasty with him.

The pheasant girls might not refuse but why do they want to sleep with noble boys?

And Aia might refuse some men I think....

Or the occasional surprise 9 months later.

Wow that is something I didn't know: Sonia is actually derived from the Greek word for wisdom, which is -- ready for this? -- Sophia. So, totally reasonable mistake to make there. I am not sure how you get from Sophia to Sonia, unless it is via some language that forms diminutives in an interesting way, but it's a cool fact anyway. Not very medieval though, so no Sonias in the story.

Just you wait.

I do have an idea for Edris, in fact, though I haven't decided for sure whether to go ahead with it. However, generally speaking, she hasn't known her husband was dead for very long so everyone is treating her widowhood as starting from that date. It's still a little soon.

But it may be that once a little time has passed, she will have a suitor or two. She's getting rather old for a man who's looking to have kids with her, but there are certainly some arrangements that would be mutually beneficial. Especially once Baldwin gets a little older.

Or maybe I will just use my idea, and watch out, Edris!

Ergh, I prefer not to think about the titles. They are already so wrong for the period. King and Earl (and Eirik's Jarl) are the only authentic titles I have going on. If I say Lord = Thane then I'm OK with Leofric and Britmar too. But Edris is nothing more than a hlǣfdige, which, through many centuries, means only Lady. She will remain a hlǣfdige if she remarries, I suppose, unless she marries some carter's son or something.