I don’t think she’s cut out to be a lady’s horse.

OH SNAP!

How is Lady Anna its been ages since we've heard of her and Bertie. Well Bertie was at the old man's party. I hope she is at-least making friends.

Anna is friends with Ana and Trudi. She does visit at Dunellen sometimes, too, but it's more like Bertie goes to visit Dunstan and brings Anna along. Anna doesn't go by herself.

She also goes to visit Wynna all the time since they're her closest neighbors. You can imagine the dynamic between those two girls. We've already seen it, in fact.

She doesn't go much farther afield than that, since she has her baby.

I don't know when we'll see her again... probably not this year.

Thats good that she's friends with Trudi, I don't like how Brit and Ogive make fun of her. Maybe that is one of the reasons why I'm not that fond of Ogive, oh well.

I hope in the future Anna and Cecily can become friends.

Ah.... assuming she ever comes to Lothere, I don't think Anna will be first to hop onto the Cecily train. Cecily put out, which Anna never did, so Anna is within her self-important rights to turn up her nose at her. Cecily would require the approval of some high-born lady before Anna would feel obliged to be nice to her.

Lothere we haven't reached that chapter yet.

Well since Brit is friends with Ogive that leaves her out maybe, Emma might befriend Cecily.

There is certainly no telling what Princess Emma might do.

Wait...Cecily put out? Did I miss something? God, I dislike Anna. More than nearly any other character, I think. Maybe it's because we've never gotten her POV, but she just...ugh. Shallow, manipulative, self-righteous, materialistic, whiny...need I go on?

You missed the part that came after the part I let you see. We won't get proof of any of that for some time yet. But Devin guessed the part-that-came-after even before I wrote the chapter, based on the banner alone.

Did I never do a chapter from Anna's POV? No, wait, I can answer that -- "Anna pays a visit". But that's the chapter that reinforces the shallow, self-righteous, materialistic view of her. Lydia Bennet!

She was a good housekeeper as Gunnilda pointed out. But of course, now she is above such things. Now she just manages. Anything else would not be the thing.

Sorry, I'm as cruel as Brit and Ogive where Anna is concerned.

Wow...that is a surprise. With Caedwulf? Really? Oh, Cecily...

He's a charmer, is that Caedwulf. The worst thing about him is that he really doesn't see that he has done anything wrong. He told her, "Don’t be frightened. I’m not that sort of young man, you know." And he really thinks he isn't. He's not a rapist, but so long as she's willing...

We will get Cecily's remorseful POV at a later time, since the More Cecily? poll was rather in her favor. Maybe it won't seem like such a surprise when we read her thoughts. Thank Devin for jumping the gun.

Illegetimate kids cause drama, and I love drama in stories.

Cassie why are you so surprise don't you remember that other girl he almost slept with before he caught Brit and Brinstan together?

I would guess she was more surprised about Cecily's actions than Caedwulf's!

Correct. I'd expect Caedwulf to sleep with anything in a skirt. I just didn't see it coming from her.

I'm actually not surprised, Caedwulf must have gone out of his way to charm her.

Does Cecily live in that castle or a little house?

Cecily is the blacksmith's daughter, so she lives at the smithy. We vaguely saw the ground floor of the smithy through the gloom in "Eirik faces his wife", when Eirik runs in there to puke in a corner. As I said in some other comment elsewhere, Cecily was sleeping just upstairs at the time, in the living quarters over the actual smithy.

I have to say that in regards to Anna, I love it when Brit makes fun of her. I can't stand Anna at all and Brit has every right to dislike the girl who was stealing her betrothed's affections. I'm just glad that Dunstan saw the light because once he and Brit grow up a little together, I'm hoping that they'll realize just how much they do love each other. Hint, hint, Lothere!!

Oh, I don't blame Brit at all, though she feels a little guilty about doing it. It's not very gracious of her. But how unbearable, to be forced to play hostess to your husband's ex? Especially since she thinks Anna did sleep with him?

Brit is quite fond of Dunstan and he of her, but I still think there's a lot of childish awkwardness and giddiness there. They aren't and will never be Alred and Matilda, but I think they could be quite happy together once they stop trying to behave the way they think they ought to behave if they're in loooove.

Yeah, I think the closest thing we could get to Alred & Matilda 2.0 is if we find a hopeless romantic for Margaret. She's as close to a copy of Matilda of all their children, I think, even though Gwynn looks just like her.

I was thinking about that just today when we were talking about dresses. (Dresses! The one millionth word! Even though it was in the context of Lili's little dresses with the big bellies... )

*cough*

What I meant to say was that I was wondering whatever became of Matilda's red dresses (for surely she had more than one) and what would happen to them in the future. I began fantasizing about Gwynn getting one altered for her lumpy dumpling self just as Brit did with Maud's dress, and I imagined Alred presenting her with her mother's famous ruby headdress (*cough* vampire *cough*)...

But of course, although Gwynn looks more like Matilda, Margaret resembles her much more in personality. However, I have this odd feeling that Alred has a sort of Matilda-worshipping affection for Gwynn that he does not have for Margaret. He loves Margaret madly, of course, but I think he has this sort of starry-eyed romantic love for Gwynn's starry-eyed romanticness. Like he thinks she is more like Matilda even though she is not. Because in fact Gwynn is very much like him, without the melancholy.

I hope this makes sense. Gwynn is the one who is going to carry on the Matilda torch in his heart, even though she is the one less fit to bear it. So she will get her mother's Psalter, her mother's jewels, etc.... And Margaret will just have to make her own way.

This is a theme I want to explore in the coming years. I think Alred's relationship with his daughters and his daughter-in-law will be quite interesting. Especially once the violet-eyed knights start showing up, and the wooing commences.

Oh, the dresses... I miss Lili. I did notice that Gwynn was the one he saw as "the new Matilda." It really makes me wonder how Margaret will turn out, since so much of what formed Matilda had to do with her mad adoration of her father, and he of her. On the other hand, Matilda also grew up without her mother, and much of Margaret's life has been spent without hers.

Oh good it's not just me!

I originally intended for Margaret to be his absolute favorite child, which was kind of apparent in her babyhood when he would not be separated from her. She was the only one he had a habit of carrying everywhere, even around on horseback. But somehow he always seems to come back to Gwynn.

Margaret will be fun to write. She is a bit wild, but she has her head square on her shoulders. (Emma meanwhile is wild, wild, wild.)

Margaret won't be like Matilda in her mad adoration of her father, though. I think Matilda had a very starry-eyed love for her father, and Margaret doesn't have any stars in her eyes at all. At least not at age eleven. Perhaps when her own knight-of-unusual-eye-color arrives she will acquire a few.

I think she's funny with poor old Conrad for now though.

Yeah, Margaret and Conrad are pretty adorable. I love how overwhelmed he is by her.

I wonder how wild Emma will be she ans Cubby seem wild enough as it is.

Cubby? Really? I thought he seemed relatively tame, especially considering who his parents are!

Okay Cubby isn't that wild but he might be in the future. And Maud wasn't that wild.

I wonder about Cubby myself. He is still young, and younger at heart (or whatever organ) than Cedric is. Cedric is a lot more interested in / obsessed with matters of sex and girls than Cubby is, or even Finn. Cubby is just pretending for now. Most of his naughtiness (which really just consists of pranks and boyish stunts) comes from trying to live up to his father's reputation.

I really can't guess how he'll be when the hormones really kick in -- whether he'll try to live up to his father in that way too. I hope to do some chapters with the young folks this December, but who knows how that will go now?

I shall rise to Cubby's defense here. He's simply adorable. Remember, he spent a lot of time trying his hardest to gain his mother's love, only to be pushed away. So, I can only imagine he's extremely sensitive too, using his playful, brave side to cover up any insecurities he might have.

He could try to live up to his father's reputation. However, Cubby appears very reserved too. A complete contrast to Cedric really.

I have to raise my hat to you, for bringing in an assortment of characters, each with their own personalities. That's extremely hard to do, even at the best of times, without at least one character overlapping another one. (I hope that made sense to you)

Thanks, Sonia, though I don't feel like I ought to take any credit for it. My characters just grow that way.

Well, you had to have a fertile imagination, just to create all these characters in the first place. Without you, this story wouldn't have blossomed the way it has, and built up quite a fan base too.

It's really funny though. A friend of mine told me that a few of her characters in her story, 'speak' to her, rather than she dictate whatever they have to do. And now, from reading all your comments, I can completely understand.

If, for example, Cat refuses to speak to you, to reveal her innermost thoughts, then there's nothing you can do about it. She'll tell you in her own good time.

**please note, I only used Cat as an example**

I've had characters "speak to me" before, but I have never experienced anything like this crew. They are so alive.

Look at my comments -- I preface practically every sentence with "I think..." Like "I think Sigefrith believes..." or "I think Malcolm didn't mean..." And sometimes I catch myself doing it and ask myself, "Woman! Are you crazy? What is this 'think'? Either you know or no one does!"

Maybe they're all fully developed in my my subconscious and I simply have an extraordinarily difficult time of finding out what's in there. But when I'm writing -- or even when I'm planning upcoming chapters or talking about them in my comments -- I know when I have hit upon the true character. Something just rings true. Trying to make them do something they don't "want" sounds so forced and awkward.

The result is that I tend to use language to describe them that makes them sound like they really are autonomous people beyond my control. The result is that if often actually feels that way. I always end up coming back to what they want... even if it means resurrecting dead babies, or sadistically manipulating the feelings of vulnerable women, or selfishly manipulating the feelings of vulnerable men, to name a few recent episodes.

It is a bit scary. I feel like the sleeping King in Alice in Wonderland... my mind is the entire universe to a lot of people who will die if I ever quit writing. I also have a fear that if I ever try to do another story, this won't happen, and I'll spend the rest of my life trying to get back into that spot. So I keep writing and writing and writing...