Another Day

For all that yesterday had the potential to be worse than a terrible day, it turned out pretty well. The boys didn’t wash their dishes from supper but that can be rectified this morning. Seth did not take Snowflake out yesterday and that cannot be rectified. Joseph told me that Seth hadn’t taken one of the does out yesterday and I thought he said Goldilocks. I knew he hadn’t taken the kids out but that was okay because they eat more of what’s in the pen than do the does. When I went out to milk, it became apparent that he didn’t take Snowflake out because I got about half the milk I was expecting. Not good. My solution for that is that Seth cannot have milk today. It won’t kill him and because I know he likes milk on his cereal and sometimes plain, maybe he’ll remember next time to take them ALL out.

I accomplished everything on my list for yesterday which is always a good thing. After being able to write more than 1,000 words, the best part of the day was making supper for the Yang’s. One of the reasons why I chose yesterday to do it is because I knew I needed something more than the usual. It worked out very well and I’m glad I was able to do it.

The boys and Amena did a fair amount of cleaning yesterday which is always nice.

Paul was going to bring home lobster for supper but we ended up going out to eat instead. That worked out well because we were able to deliver the food to the Yang’s when we went.

Today I get to pick Laura up. I need to find out what time. Joanna has work, as usual. Amena spent the night at the Trivett’s. Joseph is dressed already and Cedric just finished eating. And I just don’t feel very wordy at the moment.

Have a wonderful day!

Here are some more words for you (3,719 to be exact) (because I need a title for it):

Chapter 10

In Which

In the morning, Hywel went out to do his morning chores of caring for the animals and when he came back in, Cailin had cooked a pot of oatmeal. As they ate, they discussed what plans the day might hold. There were no pressing duties for either of them and so they decided to visit those of Hywel’s friends and relatives who were still camped out along the edge of the field.

“You are prepared for this?” Hywel asked.

“Why? What might they request other than that we go visit them in their various, very distant parts of the country?”

Hywel snorted. “As if that isn’t enough.” He shook his head. “Other than that, Cad is likely going to want to know if we have had time to talk about your parents.”

“And we shall tell him that we had more pressing matters to attend to. I have parents, I lived with my grandparents. What else matters? I fail to see why it is such a concern. How important can it be?”

“You have no burning desire to know?”

Cailin gave a quick shake of her head. “No. I always got the idea from Rhiannon that my father was not a good person, that he may have been as bad as my mother was good.”

“I suppose so,” Hywel said thoughtfully. “And yet... I don’t know.” He finished off his porridge and set his spoon in the bowl. “What if Cad is right? What if your mother is the queen?”

“Well, so what if she is. Or was. She is dead now.”

“Yes. Well,” he stood and picked up their dishes, carrying them to the side table set by the back door where there was a washing pan filled with water. “These will wait. I happen to know that Cadfael wants to leave this day, preferably before noon. Tighearnan will be travelling with him which will leave only Cadwalader here. He, well, he is hoping that we chose to travel and that he might go with us to the north where Cadfael wants to spend some time before deciding upon his next move. I believe he intends to hold a council of some type there.”

Cailin nodded slowly as they stepped out the door and she closed it behind them. “I know you do not want to travel,” she said, slipping an arm around his waist as his arm encompassed her shoulders. “But perhaps it is the course of action we ought to take.”

He smiled at her. “What?” she asked.

“Cad thought you would take some convincing; and here you are for all intents and purposes attempting to convince me.”

“I can’t say that I want to go anywhere. But if it is what we are meant to do, then oughtn’t we to do it?” She paused. I know this might be a hardship for those who have come to rely on you as their healer. Dame Garten is due to deliver in just less than two months’ time. And there are others, not to mention those who might take ill. Rhiannon is no longer with us. What will the people do?”

Hywel squeezed her. “They’ll manage. Selwyn knows much about the healing arts as does Eirian. There is very little that the two of them could not do in my absence.”

They had reached Cadfael’s tent, but before going in, Hywel smiled at Cailin. “What say we give them a show?” he whispered.

“A show?” Cailin questioned.

“Aye.” He smiled. And then he turned toward her and bent to kiss her.

“Ah, I see! Let’s do that again.” She rose up on tiptoe, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

Someone coughed and Hywel and Cailin separated enough to gaze deeply into one another’s eyes.

Now they heard laughter and turned toward the tent.

Hywel smiled and they all entered the tent.

Cailin smiled at the unlikely group of men. The shortest came forward and said, “Introductions, my friend, introductions.”

With a mellow chuckle, Hywel obliged. “Cailin, this is Tighearnan. And Cadfael and Cadwalader. Tighearnan, Cad and Cad, this is Cailin.”

Smiling, she curtsied. “Pleased to meet all of you,” she said. Cadfael offered her the single bench in the tent, which she sat on in spite of feeling even smaller next to Hywel’s giant friend. The four of them gathered around the table and began discussing Idris’s travels and upcoming plans for the winter. Cailin listened to them speaking, hearing the words as well as the intentions. She could sense that they all deferred to Hywel and that his opinion mattered more to them than the combined total of the rest. They were all very sure of themselves, Cadfael perhaps more than the rest, and Cadwalader the least. From the three she could feel their desire, their hope, that she and Hywel would agree to travel throughout the land. It was much in need of healing, they all believed, and Hywel might be the only one who could accomplish what needed to be done. She smiled at that. Hywel was indeed a good healer and she knew that he was going to be a good husband. But heal the entire land? Could any one person accomplish this? She did not know and neither did she think it likely.

As they continued their discussion, Cailin dove deeper. She wanted to get a real feel for these three men. She wanted to know why, when they had seen more of what was happening in the land, they looked to Hywel. He was, after all, just one man. A good one, but only one.

First, because she knew that there was a blood connection between her husband and Cadwalader, she reached out this cousin of hers by marriage. She looked at him, and noticed how very like Hywel he looked. She knew that Hywel and Hartwin had passed for brothers before but in Cadwalader, she saw such great similarity that they could have been identical twins. Although she could get a feeling for some things from him, he had barriers up that would not allow her to penetrate very far. She could feel of his love for his cousin, his love of the Highlands, his respect for his companions, and his deep gratitude that Hywel had found a wife, and just a little tickling his love for his wife and children, but nothing of any importance to the task they saw ahead.

Finding so little success with the cousin, she turned her attention to the short one. He may have been short in stature, but he was not short of courage. She could feel from him power, strength, iron will. But then a sudden iron wall. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes for a moment and rubbed her temples. What would she find with the giant?

He was tall and very muscular and she knew that she would not want to come across him in the dark unawares. Cailin didn’t get as far with Cadfael as she did the others. The armor he had built up to protect his mind was incredible but meant that she could find out very little from him and that she really would not want to come across him in the dark unawares because she might not even feel his presence. It disturbed her for a few moments because she remembered that she had felt nothing from Gudrun either. But then she realized that with Gudrun she had felt absolutely nothing. With Cadfael, she could tell there were barriers and what little leaked was harmless. Still, she needed to know more so she felt that it was time for her to interrupt this meeting.

Standing, she found a flagon and brought it down on the table. The four men froze and then turned toward her. “This,” she indicated the table and the discussion with a sweep of her arm, “is all well and good. But I’ve been sitting here and I can feel so little from any of you,” she glared at all three, especially Cadfael, “that I must have some questions answered.” They remained mute so she continued. “Hywel and I have a decision to make. We need to make the right one. Therefore, I need to know how you,” she stabbed a finger toward Tighearnan, “and you,” she did the same to Cadfael, “know Hywel.”

They looked at one another and then, before either could speak, Cailin said, “One at a time, please.”

Tighearnan was the first to speak. “You are asking, my fair lady, for a good bit of history; a good bit of history that I am sorry to say we do not have time to relate and if you are already familiar with it, a telling now would be repetitious and pointless. However, basing my thoughts on the fact that you may not know the true identity of your own parents, I think it likely you may not know the true history of our land.” Cailin nodded. She’d always heard that the mountain dwellers of the east could take a week to say what most people could say in an hour. It appeared that she had heard correctly. She did not know exactly of what the short man was speaking but she did know that at one time, the entire land had been ruled by a High King and that under him were three Lower Kings ruling over their own kingdoms. Tighearnan came from the east which had been known as the Eastern Kingdom and he proceeded to tell Cailin this. She nodded again, doing her best to hide her impatience. “I am descended from the Kings of the east. It is my right and responsibility to assume that title if ever Feardorcha,” he paused, stroking his beard as he searching for the right word, “is disposed of or otherwise relinquishes his throne.” Cailin did not know this and while she found it interesting, she did not see what it had to do with how he knew her husband. She was about to say so when Tighearnan continued. “Hywel is the one man to whom I would be subject.”

Cailin glanced at him and then Hywel. “What?” Hywel shrugged.

“Your husband, madam, is descended from the High Kings of the land. For hundreds of years the monarchy had been filled by a staunch upright family and during their reign, the kingdom was ruled in fairness and equity. But, over time, the younger generations became tired of being constant defenders of freedom and wanted nothing more than to be able to settle down and live more simple lives. Eventually, they relinquished their claim to the throne to a family thought by most to be patriotic preservers of truth.

“It wasn’t long however, before the truth became known and the kingdom became embroiled in the same wars that plagued most of the world at that time. The kingdom was lost and won by various kings and principalities and life generally degenerated to what we find if we leave this place. It is during this time that we lost all contact with the lands beyond the mountains to the east. It is during this time that our tunnels became impossible to traverse due to earthquakes and war until now we must send someone to find out what is there.” He bowed before Cailin. “I trust this does answer your question.

She cleared her throat. “It does. And gives me much to think about. Thank you.” She turned to Cadfael and asked, “Is your story similar?”

He smiled at her and folded his arms. “Similar, yes; the same, no. I am not descended from kings. My progenitors did, however, live in these Highlands. My parents in particular lived in Morven until their untimely death many years ago leaving me and my siblings without parents. Hywel and I grew up with Cadwalader, Hartwin, and the others.” He paused. “While my ancestors were not kings, they were among the trusted generals in times of war and keepers of the peace serving under the High Kings. It would be a great honor to do so once more.”

Cailin shook her head in amazement with a bemused look on her face and turned toward Hywel. “You of course knew all of this?”

“I did,” he concurred.

She nodded again. “And somehow, I fit into this picture. As more than just your wife.” He agreed. “What about Feardorcha? How does he fit?”

Tighearnan spoke. “We are not entirely sure. Everyone does know that he has a son, Brendan. What no one seems to know is why we do not hear more about him. We do not know what his political ambitions are or if indeed he has any. But that is the son. Of the father we know less than we would like. No one is entirely sure even from whence he hails. What we do know is that he came out of nowhere and befriended the king. He became indispensable to the king, doing whatever was required of him. As time passed, he was named as heir as the old king had no living child and his queen was well beyond childbearing age. There were those who thought he should divorce his queen, marry a younger woman, and produce an heir but he would not hear of it.”

“It all worked out very well for him,” Cadfael inserted. “We also know that he married Aisling and we do know that she was from the Highlands. Mynydd,” he said, with a meaningful look at Cailin, “to be exact.”

Cailin was quiet. Her mother’s name; she knew she had heard it but for the life of her, she could not remember. Was it Aisling? She slowly shook her head. “You have answered my questions and have left me with many more. If you would excuse us?” She looked to Hywel and they walked outside.

The day was lovely, the breeze moved through the grasses of the field and the trees of the forest. There were white clouds sailing by far overhead and birds singing. Cailin reached for Hywel’s hand and they walked along the edge of the field, each lost in his or her own thoughts. Finally, they came to a fence and both sat on the top rung.

“Thoughts?” they said at the same moment and then laughed.

“I think,” Cailin ventured, “that we ought to go and see the world. We have a legitimate excuse, having just been married, and we do have many things to learn outside of our secluded corner of the world.”

“Your thoughts parallel mine.”

Cailin smiled. “I also think that it is high time to visit Mynydd, perhaps as the first destination of our travels, in order to find a definitive answer to my parentage. It is hard to imagine,” she marveled, “that I could be the daughter of the king.”

“It might be hard for you to imagine,” Hywel said, “but not for me. In order to marry the king, Aisling must have been highborn. If indeed she is your mother, you would be as well.” He turned toward her and looked deep into her eyes. “I see in you the makings of a truly great lady. You are good and wise and care more for others than yourself.” He shook his head. “The one thing I wonder is that if Aisling is your mother, and Feardorcha is your father, why then did she return to Mynydd to birth you? Why did she not remain in the capital? Questions I do not know if we will ever know the answers to.”

“And you,” Cailin said. “Descended from the High Kings? Have you known this your entire life?”

He shrugged. “It’s no great secret. They often chose from the Highlands or the northern lands husbands or wives, less often from the east, and Morven had more than its share.”

They sat in companionable silence for a while. Finally, Hywel jumped off the fence and held Cailin’s hand as she slid to the ground. “I suppose we ought to tell them that we’ll go,” Hywel said as they walked back to Cadfael’s tent.

“Yes. When will we leave?”

“As soon as we can be ready.”

Cailin sighed. “I think I shall miss this place.”

“I know I will,” agreed Hywel, holding back the flap of the tent for her.

They stood at the entrance. Cadfael pounded Hywel on the back. “Ah, glad I am that you have chosen to go!”

“How can you tell?”

The larger man leaned backward and laughed, “Because you do look so glum!” They all laughed at that. “You can’t have many definite plans as yet, but do you have a first destination in mind?”

“Mynydd,” Cailin said.

Cadfael nodded. “A good choice. There you may learn many things. Well, I know Cadwalader has been itching to be off but with this, it might be a few days before he is able as he will be travelling with you. Tighearnan and I will be leaving just as quickly as we break camp. Won’t take long, either,” he grinned. “But before we begin, let us take a look at the map.” They gathered around the table once more. “I am thinking that it would be best to continue downriver from Mynydd to Thes Port and then to travel along the coast until you are out of the mountains. The mountains are not nearly as hard to travel as these,” he indicated where they were, “but there are good roads along the coast and many villages. Once you’ve reached this point,” he pointed to the place where the foothills smoothed out, “it will be fairly easy travelling across the plains and will leave you only one major river, the Aithnye, to cross. And then,” he flung his arms wide, “you’ll practically be there.”

“Yes,” Tighearnan agreed. “Our plans include following the Ailuj to its source and then travelling mostly as the crow flies. Depending upon when you leave and how many stops you make along the way, we should be ahead of you by several days at least, perhaps as much as a fortnight or more.”

Hywel laughed. “Is there anything you haven’t planned out?”

Tighearnan joined in the laughter and shook his head.

Hywel and Cailin took their leave. Cadfael and Tighearnan still had a fairly substantial amount of things to disassemble and pack into the two carts they had. Cadwalader stayed to help them and as they neared the cottage, they saw Hartwin and Selwyn walking through the field to lend a hand.

“What mean you to do about the animals whilst we are gone?” Cailin asked, walking through the door.

“Nothing,” was Hywel’s nonchalant answer.

“Nothing?”

“No. Did you notice the number of animals Daíre and Eirian have?”

“Two horses.”

“And a garden?”

“Just a very small one.”

“Eirian does laundry for almost everyone. She is able to trade for almost everything that they need or want in the way of grain, vegetable, fruit, or meat. Daíre is a jack of all trades. He does a lot of carpentry work in the nearby villages and hamlets and anything that Eirian is not able to procure, he is. Although I have not spoken to them, I am fairly confident that they will agree to stay here and care for the garden and animals.”

Cailin was rummaging through the cupboards and found bread and cheese which she took out and placed on the table. “What does that leave for us to do?”

Hywel brought mugs of water to the table. “Acquire two or three horses for our trip.”

They sat down and Cailin sliced the bread and cheese. “Two or three? For what purpose?”

“Well,” Hywel drawled, “as much as I would love you to ride pillion, I do not think it the best way to travel the distances we are planning. And although we might not have enough to take a cart or wagon, and indeed, I would not want to, we do need to take clothing and some supplies with us.”

Cailin nodded, taking a drink of water. “This seems too easy. I thought planning a trip that might well take two months would be almost as arduous as the trip itself.”

“Yes,” Hywel agreed, talking through a mouthful of cheese. He swallowed. “Cad has his own horse and travels light. Because he will be with us for the first part of the journey, we will be able to avoid staying in taverns for the most part. He has a tent and cooking supplies. Once we take our leave of our friends in Harobed, we will be more than likely be travelling alone and it will be cooler. Taverns might well be our best option at that point.”

Cailin gazed at Hywel. “After Harobed what will be our destination?”

“Regrebmal.”

“That is in Tighearnan’s realm?”

“Aye. Depending upon the weather and how things seem, we will continue on the Leinad then or I am not sure. From there we would have to go up around the fiords and then to either the south or north of Gwyrddlas Llyn. The north would take us right close to Cadarnle Caer which I do not believe would be wise. Although in some ways, the route would be easier.”

“Have you been to these places?”

“With my grandfather. Many years ago. I was but a child.”

Cailin slowly shook her head and sighed, finishing her bread. “I’ve never been outside the Highlands,” she said quietly. “Never thought I would, never wanted to. Now that it appears to be part of my future, I am not sure if I should be excited or not.”

Hywel nodded in agreement. “I do not believe it will be a fun trip although it ought not to be dangerous,” he paused, thinking. “I will have first rate travelling companions, especially one of them, and it will be nice to see some old friends whom I have not for many, many years.”

“Hmmmm, yes.” Cailin pushed away from the table, standing. She collected the dirty dishes and carried them to the counter. “I imagine you will be going to talk to people?” she said.

“Aye. You want not to come?”

“No,” she smiled. “There is plenty to occupy me here.”