Thursday 23 September 2010
I had planned for the last chapter, “Estrid names the finest treasure,” to begin with a scene in Ana’s room, wherein Eadwyn is permitted to cross the threshold of that hallowed chamber before the appointed time, in order to tell Estrid that Brede is here. I decided that part was unnecessary, but it meant I wasted a few shots.
And since the baby might not be a baby any more by the time she gets a chance to appear in another chapter, I really don’t want to waste baby pictures. So here are a few outtakes—this time of a scene that really happened, but which didn’t make it into the final cut. 
Sophie decides to admit Eadwyn on the advice of her colleagues:
Eadwyn immediately forgets why he came:
Closeup of Freya, and Estrid proving she’s Eirik’s sister:
Eadwyn is oblivious to the jokes being made at his expense:
And here is why:
Little brown-haired, green-eyed Athelis Ealstan, and mom Ana, at last able to put to good use the “unfair advantage” that so troubled poor flat-chested Synne. 
Hard-core Lothere trivia fans will remember that Athelis was the name of Theobald’s eldest daughter, who died over nine years ago. Sigefrith announced her death to Maud in “Maud learns of a danger to herself.”
“Yes, darling, she was always a very good little girl, but she was a bit naughty yesterday, and was playing on the wall with the other children, and she fell.”
Later, when naughty naughty Freya wanted to run away with the Handsome Sir Baldwin, she threatened her own sister with this pretty piece:
“That is different. Listen, Ana… listen! I mean it! I will go away with Baldwin today, and no one shall stop me. I wish you would be happy for me, but I’m warning you – if you tell Uncle and we are caught, then I shall tell him about you!”
Ana shivered. “What about me?” she asked quietly.
“I shall tell him what happened on the wall that day!”
“Oh, Freya! You would do that to me?”
“Only if you betray me.”
“But it was an accident!”
“It was an accident that she fell. It was not an accident that you pushed her. She would not have fallen if you hadn’t.”
So Ana, I think, is trying to make up for the accident in her way. It’s a pity Theobald is no longer here to know.
As for Freya, I hope she has grown up a bit since that day in the woods.
Chapters
“So Ana, I think, is trying to make up for the accident in her way. It’s a pity Theobald is no longer here to know.”
Don’t you think its best he didn’t? That is an explosive can of worms.