Egelric is startled by Iylaine's hair

“We wasn’t looking for you this early!” Gunnilda called as Egelric came in. She had been preparing to pluck a chicken – she was heartily glad he had not come a short while later to find her with feathers all over her dress and in her hair, like a little fool.

“I can leave and come back later,” he laughed, pretending to turn back to the door.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Iylaine cried as she jumped up from the game she had been playing on the floor with Wynna.

“What’s this?” he gasped when he got a look at her.

“Oh! It’s my hair! Do you like it?” the girl asked, jumping around in her excitement.

“What’s the meaning of this?” he asked angrily, turning to Gunnilda. “Did she go out like this?”

Gunnilda stared. “What’s wrong with it?” And what on earth was the matter with him?

“You can see her ears!”

“And what else?” Gunnilda asked, unimpressed. “Baby and Wynn was over to Githa’s to play with the girls, and Githa did their hair. I think it’s real pretty.”

“Are you telling me she walked back here like that? Right through the damned crossroads?”

“Well, I guess she did! I guess she don’t have nothing to be ashamed of!”

“You know I don’t want her showing her ears!”

“What do you think you’re hiding? There isn’t a soul in this valley doesn’t know about her poor ears!”

“That doesn’t mean she needs to flaunt them before everyone!”

“She’s not flaunting her ears, she’s just being her own precious self, and I say she don’t have nothing to be ashamed of. But I say you do, coming in here and making this girl cry, when she was so proud of her hair and thought to please you! Are you happy now?”

“No, I’m not happy now,” he snapped. “I’m not happy she’s crying, I’m not happy you’re shrieking at me, and I’m not happy she has been out showing her ears.”

“It’s not enough you’re unhappy, you got to make everyone else unhappy too, is that it?”

“Iylaine, take your hair down,” he said, turning suddenly to the sniffling girl.

Iylaine simply began sobbing again.

Egelric said something Gunnilda didn’t understand – Gaelic no doubt – and stalked over to the fire.

“What did you say to her?” Gunnilda asked as she kneeled next to the girl.

“Nothing fit for feminine ears of any shape or size,” he growled. “And I didn’t say it to her, if that makes a difference.”

“You’re a hard man, Egelric.”

“I believe you’ve already told me so,” he said without looking around.

Gunnilda looked up at him, wondering what he meant.

“Gunnie, please take my hair down,” Iylaine whimpered. “I don’t like it.”

“Hush, Baby,” she soothed. “Your hair is real pretty like that, and I know your Da would think so too if he wasn’t worried about you.”

“It is pretty, Baby,” Egelric said into the fire.

“You see?” Gunnilda whispered. “He’s sorry, even if he’s too much of a man to admit he was wrong. But if your Da don’t like your hair showing your ears, then we must do as he says. He knows best, and he don’t mean to hurt.”