Ethelwyn prepares to run

Ethelwyn had not intended to accompany Man-​​Flann and his daughters up into the hall. Catan had dragged him along by employing her favorite Ethelwyn-​​dragging trick, which consisted of talking to him steadily as she walked away from him, so that if, as a gentleman, he wished to be attentive to her conversation, he was obliged to trail along after her.

“There you are!” Sir Egelric said to his cousins. “I’d thought we were rid of you for good this time.”

“No, you didn’t!” Wulf protested. “You even said we had to wait to eat dinner till they came. And you’re late!” he scolded Man-​​Flann.

“I can’t help that,” Man-​​Flann shrugged helplessly. “You know Cat has to take a different way every time.”

“She likes to explore!” Girl-​​Flann explained.

“No, I don’t!” Catan said. “I like to go… what do you call it, Wyn?” she asked with sudden honey-​​sweetness. “In English?”

“Prowling,” Ethelwyn said.

“I like to go prowling!”

Wulf wrapped his arms around her legs and said, “Well, I’m a wolf, and I like to go hunting… cats!”

“And you just caught one!” she laughed.

“Ach!” Girl-​​Flann sighed. “That’s the sort of man I should like. He knows what he wants, and he takes it!”

“And he doesn’t let go, either!” Catan said as she attempted to stumble across the room with Wulf attached to her skirts.

Ethelwyn could feel his face growing hot, but no one seemed to be looking at him, and that, he hoped, indicated they had not meant a criticism of him.

He did not know whether Cat and Girl-​​Flann knew about Mouse. He could only assume they did not, since he believed that neither could have resisted making Cat-​​and-​​Mouse jokes if they had known. But they had spent the last ten days with Lady Maire and her crowd – perhaps even Lady Wynflaed herself. He did not yet know what they had learned meanwhile.

But he had other more urgent concerns, and he caught Sir Egelric’s arm as he went by.

“Sir!” he whispered.

“Wyn!” Egelric said aloud. “I know you already ate, but you must least come have a bit of bread and a cup of wine with us. Who knows when you’ll have a chance to drink with me again?”

“In a month’s time, God willing,” Ethelwyn murmured. “But, sir, there’s something I don’t quite understand…”

“Ach, this must be serious,” Egelric whispered, frowning in mock concern. “This is a rare occurrence indeed!”

Ethelwyn was too accustomed to his teasing to be disconcerted. “I thought the ladies were only coming for a visit this afternoon,” he said softly.

“A visit?”

“But they came with their maids and all their bags and gowns and things.”

“They’re done visiting, Wyn. They’re here to stay now. All to yourself,” he smiled wickedly.

“But – I – ” His face was getting warm again. “I thought they were to stay with Lady Maire while you all were away.”

“Wherefore? They shall stay with Lady Lili! You don’t suppose I would leave poor Lili here with no other company than these two young barbarians and that keening banshee upstairs? And your bachelor self, do you? At least with Cat and Girl-​​Flann in residence, I shall know that my wife is only sitting on your lap one evening out of three.”

“She certainly shall not!”

“Well, that’s good news for the two girls.”

“But, no!” Ethelwyn pleaded. “Anyway, they’re not that sort of girl.”

“I think they’re the sort of girl who would like it very much, though you mustn’t forget, young man,” Egelric said with a fatherly scowl, “they’re the sort who would expect it to be practice for a more serious business somewhere down the road.”

“I would certainly not forget, but I – ”

“Unlike me?” Egelric grinned.

“Well, I didn’t…”

“Don’t worry, lad,” Egelric whispered and nudged his arm with the back of his hand. “Man-​​Flann would be happy to give you either of them. Perhaps not both, though, so don’t try anything fancy. But in their country, the only hard and fast rule is that one must marry before the baptism of one’s first baby. At least the morning before,” he winked.

“But I don’t want to marry anybody,” Ethelwyn whined.

“Oh! Then you’ll be doing a lot of running over the next month. Almost makes me sorry I shan’t be here to see it,” Egelric tittered.

“But, no!” Ethelwyn groaned.

“Listen, Wyn. Don’t let one girl ruin things for all the other girls in the world. And don’t let her ruin things for you, especially. I think she ought to be ashamed of what she did to you, and if you had been a worse sort of man with her, it would have been what she deserved. And if – ”

“Stop. Please. Sir.”

Egelric shook his head and sighed, but he stopped.

His master’s outlook on that entire family had soured since he had learned that Mouse had refused him after leading him on for weeks. To Sir Egelric, the sullied virtue of the grandmother now seemed a hereditary defect. He would shake his head if Lady Wynflaed were mentioned, thinking of how she had come to be married, and in what condition; and he would scarcely allow Mouse to be mentioned at all.

Ethelwyn knew that Egelric had strange ideas about the way ladies were supposed to comport themselves, never having known any until he was a man. Egelric now believed that the only thing that had saved Mouse from the common fate of the women of her family was Ethelwyn’s own virtue.

Ethelwyn was sufficiently in awe of his employer’s shrewdness that he sometimes asked himself whether it was true. He did not like either answer.

“I assure you, I simply do not wish to be married. Not now.”

Egelric frowned. “Not so soon, you mean?”

“Not now.”