I voted yes; there is something about her that I like. Cecily seems so pure and gentle and I love the affect she has on Caedwulf. He doesen't seem as cocky as he usually does when she is around him. She also made me remember how much I miss Maud. Hopefully she might be able to come to the valley.

Verity, that is perhaps the saddest thing I ever heard.

I'm still not very convinced. Afterall, the only time we've seen Caedwulf not act like a total ass is when he gathered his brothers and sisters before Sigefrith's and Eadie's wedding and when he was upset that people were pulling flowers up from Maud's garden during that terrible year when food was scarce. Perhaps the boy is finally growing up but I still wouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt. We'll have to see. If the introduction of Cecily finally shows some evolution in character, it would do the boy some good. Needs to stop thinking with his "other brain".

The GASP DRAMA!! was exactly what I had originally planned for Cecily, some years later. But it seems like people are interested in her, and I myself think it would be interesting to see the consequences of this little meeting from her side. Since she's the one who actually has to deal with most of them. Caedwulf won't get away unscathed, at least not at first, but it's just his poor babyish heart that's getting a little scathed here.

During lunch I was rereading the chapter in which Eirik gets sick in the smithy after killing Osvald, and I was thinking... Cecily's father is the blacksmith on Whitehand's little fortified island, which means that while Eirik was puking down in the darkened smithy, Cecily was sleeping upstairs quite unaware of all the drama going on below, and what it was going to mean for her. All the more interesting considering I hadn't even thought of Cecily yet when I wrote that chapter.

Also, the just-revealed fact that her father is a lowly blacksmith should put to rest any speculation that Sigefrith might allow Caedwulf to bring her home, or even -- gasp -- marry her in place of Ogive. Even Caedwulf must be painfully aware of that, which is perhaps why he thought of taking her to Hwaelnaess instead of Lothere. As if he could be in two places at once.

It definitnely will be Caerbhaill, I can't wait.

I don't know what to vote Because I don't want Cecily in the picture because I really like Ogive but I am always happy for new characters on the scene so... arg indecision. Can't you have one that is a "More Cecily but only if she doesn't wreck things for Ogive"?

Alright fine... I am going to vote more please. But I am hoping fervently that things aren't forever ruined with Ogive. Poor Ogive. I find the relationship between her and Caedwulf much more interesting and entertaining than his infatuation with Cecily. But then we haven't seen much of either so I don't know.

I am the same Verity, I cannot quite decide. I did vote for the last one, but we haven't quite gotten to the nitty gritty of Cecily yet. I'd need some more time before I could deliver a verdict per se.

You see, Sonia, that's why I had the poll... to know whether it was worth giving more Cecily... so you have to decide without knowing yet. If you're intrigued, that's close enough.

Verity, there is at least one more love triangle that has been fermenting for a while now, though it's a somewhat unusual one. Not one of the "Oh I just can't decide who's best for her" triangles. That's one of those storylines I'm keeping in reserve in case I ever run out of ideas some day. (Hahahahaha as if.)

Oh, and there's the Gunnilda / Egelric / Some Other Woman triangle that's been going on since Chapter 50 or earlier.

And the Maire / Aengus / Lena triangle is more like a square, because there's Malcolm hanging around in there too.

"It was only just, what happened.  I loved another man’s wife.  To punish me, my wife loved another man.  To punish her, her husband loved another woman.  What’s next, Maire daughter of Aed?  We need a man for your husband’s elf-woman to love."

Though that shape might soon get still another side, depending on how things go this month with certain characters. And there's Lasrua now too. Complicated, complicated...

And Leofric / Alred / Hetty / Memory of Matilda! Hello! Polygons are my specialty.

You don't find Ogive interesting??? Ogive is a giant exploding puffball of interesting!

I am beginning to wonder about you, Devin. You persist in taking my characters the opposite way from what I intended.

(Backtrack-voting!)

I voted "yes". Not because I'm particularly pro-Cecily... I'm way more interested in Ogive at the moment, she's that rare female character who actually knows-- gasp-- politics! I love her already! And, considering the recent chapter showing how much Sigefrith respects her, and considering HIS general opinion of women... Actually, I'm more interested in Ogive herself rather than Ogive/Caedwulf, although I'm sure he'll play a big part in shaping her character (and sorrows).

But it's precisely because I feel nothing for Cecily that I wanna see and learn more of her.

I'm not in a rush, though. Heh. I'm all for "Cecily comes back a few years later... WITH A SURPRISE". But all the other options didn't really reflect what I really mean, which I interpreted as saying that I wasn't interested at all. I am. Just... not immediately. XD

Ogive wasn't sitting on the throne... the Queen's throne was empty. She was sitting in Caedwulf's chair: the Crown Prince's... err... thronelet.

But yeah, definitely not a Sigefrith-like thing to do.

Qualifying your vote is what comments on polls are for, Seiza. I don't know how much we'll see of Cecily in the coming *cough*nine*cough* months, but I'm sure I'll do at least a chapter or two. Ahhhhh, consequences!

But I thought she wasn't that kind of girl!

I'm guessing my vote is a little too late to count, but I'm not too keen on the whole idea of Cecily.

The fact that Caedwulf already has Ogive is part of it, but that's not the only reason I'm anti-Cecily. After I read that chapter for the first time, I read it over a few more times just to make sure I wasn't out of my mind, but between his relating her to Maud and his checking out her hips, the phrase "Oedipus complex" was never far from forefront of my mind for more than a couple seconds.

And of course, Caedwulf's comparing Cecily to Maud made me compare Cecily to Maud, which of course required actually thinking about Maud. In all honesty, I never really liked Maud at all, from the very beginning to her death *runs and hides from the eternal wrath of Devin*.

Of course, now that she's pregnant (and with Caedwulf's child, unless she really is more "that sort of girl" than she said she was), it's inevitable that she'll show up at some point. I'm hoping she'll just come and go.

It would be amusing if it turned out it wasn't even Caedwulf's baby anyway--then we'd have Sigefrith/Maud/Malcolm all over again.

We haven't seen either Cecily or Caedwulf again since I asked the question, so it's certainly not too late.

I haven't made up my mind whether Caedwulf will ever see her again. I am not too keen on the whole soap-opera-esque "Surprise!" arrival of Cecily and her little bundle of square-jawed joy. It seems so unlikely to ever happen, given the distance, etc...

Unless Eirik meddles. That would be a rather Eirik-like thing to do, though he might not care to do that to Ogive, whom he likes a lot.

However, if Caedwulf never sees Cecily again, I do think the memory of her will haunt him for the rest of his life. And lest that seem surprising behavior for a Caedwulf, he will be reminded of her in a startling way a few months from now (nothing to do with the pregnancy) and I think that will grave her image permanently.

At the moment my plans are to have Caedwulf come home and mope about her and imagine himself in looooove, and perhaps be a little peacockish and proud of the Depths of Passion that this proves he has. (Even while still engaged to Ogive, of course, and still sleeping with half the local lower class).

Meanwhile Cecily's life will have been ruined, and the extent to which we see MOAR CECILYYYYY!!! may just be watching her life fall apart. I think it could be interesting watching that play out against the backdrop of Spoiled Rich Boy's occasional "Woe is me" and ongoing promiscuity. As Caedwulf himself believes, it truly is All About Him. Cecily may just be a way for me to explore certain sides of his character, or make him grow, or something.

Or maybe we will unexpectedly fall in love with her like we did Cat when the Cat + Kiv story began...

Don't worry... I think that -- more than any other -- this is one storyline that has gotten WAY ahead of itself through discussion in the comments and forum. If someone only had the story to read, then as I said, we haven't even seen Caedwulf or Cecily since their first meeting, so there's no reason to even suspect they slept together.

They had a few hours together before Caedwulf had to leave. Apparently Caedwulf put it to good use. I don't know, I can only guess Cecily got swept up in his charm and charisma, and the awe-inspiring-ness of his stature as Crown Prince of a country, and hormones, and perhaps even the romance of feeling like she was falling in love and yet knowing she only had a few hours with this young man and might never see him again... and she just threw caution and common sense and her good upbringing to the wind.

I don't know how much of that will ever come out in the story. What we will (probably) see is the consequences. Caedwulf's lingering pangs of love, and perhaps Cecily dealing with the pregnancy. But as of yet, we don't know anything about either of the two or what they're going through, so don't sweat it.