Edris and Maire were quite close. Maire was only a few years older than Hetty in age, but in some ways she was more mature than Hetty, and certainly more than some of the other girls in the neighborhood, like Sophie, Estrid, Cat, Flann, Eadie, and everyone. In terms of the types of conversations they would have, Edris was a lot more to Maire's tastes.

And when Edris makes up her mind to do something (which happens rarely) she does it in spite of everything and everyone, so she was the only one of Maire's former friends going to visit her in that room, even though Maire never even acknowledged her. Edris has a good heart and did not judge. Growing up and spending her young adulthood in a convent seems to have made her almost nunlike in my mind. She just saw a woman in distress.

Maire's kids definitely play a lot with Edris's. Probably more than anyone in recent years. The Nothelm crowd is not super-close with the Bernwald crowd, and it so happens that there is a gap in the Nothelm kids' ages that means they don't mesh too well with Edris's kids or Maire's kids. (Plus there's that whole candy-for-breakfast, drunken-ten-year-old, dancing-during-Advent, no-fixed-bedtime chaos at Nothelm which must horrify poor Edris.)

More recently, Raegan and Lissa have been visiting Bernwald quite a bit over Christmas, to play with Ardith and Stein's sister Astrid. (Don't forget Sophie, Astrid, Olaf, Baby Gamle, and Sophie's boys are staying at Bernwald till Stein gets back.) But most of the time they live way too far away for that.

Wulf and Gils may have played with Edris's kids too while they were at Maire's. But Egelric has never been close with Bernwald, so I doubt they often went there to play.

I would imagine that Estrid's kids would play with Edris's, but that's quite a trot to take the little ones on.

Oh, and we mustn't forget the incorrigible Drage. He probably plays with Edris's boy a lot -- they're about the same age, and I'm sure Sigefrith likes to see Cenwulf's son playing with his own like that, all these years later. Ceolred is not at all like Cowardly Lion Baldwin, so he probably does hold his own with the young dragon. Ceolred will be seven soon and getting his first sword, so I would imagine Sigefrith will take him on as a page at that time. Then Aering and Ceolred will be able to team up against Drageling and squash the little monster flat.

Anyway, we will coincidentally see Edris in the next chapter, but once again she doesn't exactly play a starring role. These days she isn't a MAIN character. I do have a little storyline idea for her, but she would be horrified if she knew what it was.