Free To Love Again by Bertrice Small Page B

her place at the board. “From the look of you, you are a girl full grown, and we are not idle people. You will be expected to earn your keep, which willleave you little time for feeling sorry for yourself.” She turned from Cailin and began to serve breakfast to the others who were now entering the hall.
    “Do not let my grandmother’s bark fool you,” Corio said with a grin as Cailin glared fiercely at Ceara’s back. “She is noted for her soft heart. She only seeks to prevent you from hurting yourself.”
    “She has an odd way of showing it,” Cailin muttered darkly.
    “Would you like me to tell you about the family?” Corio asked in an attempt to distract her. When she nodded, he began, “Although our grandfather has sired ten sons, only three live in this village: my father Eppilus, and my uncles Lugotorix and Segovax, they are Bryna’s sons. The others, and their families, are scattered about the other hill-fort villages belonging to the hill Dobunni. Our grandfather has five wives.”
    “I thought he had only four,” Cailin interrupted.
    “Four living, but he had a total of five. Bryna went to the Isles of the Blest some years back. Then Berikos married a woman named Brigit two years ago. She is not a Dobunni. She is a Catuvellauni. Our grandfather makes a fool of himself over her. She is not much older than you are, Cailin, but she is wicked beyond belief. My grandmother is chief of Berikos’s women, but if Brigit decides to oppose Ceara’s decisions, Berikos supports Brigit. It is very wrong of him, but it amuses him to encourage her in fãvor of his other women. Fortunately, Brigit is content to allow my grandmother and Maeve their responsibilities regarding the household. Such is not her forte. She prefers to spend her days in her own house, perfuming and preparing herself for my grandfather’s pleasure. When she ventures out, she is accompanied by two serving girls who almost anticipate her every desire. They say she holds our grandfather by means of enchantment and secret potions.”
    Three tall men, one with dark hair, the other two with hair like Cailin’s, came to sit down next to them.
    “Mother says you are Kyna’s daughter,” the dark-hairedman said. “Are you our sister’s child, my pretty girl? I am Eppilus, the father of this handsome young scamp, and youngest son of Ceara and Berikos.”
    “Yes, I am the daughter of Kyna and Gaius Drusus. My name is Cailin,” she replied quietly.
    “I am Lugotorix,” said one of the auburn-haired men, “and this is my twin brother, Segovax. We are the sons of Bryna and Berikos.”
    “My brothers, Titus and Flavius, were also twins,” Cailin said, and then to her great mortification, tears began to slide down her face. Desperately she attempted to scrub them away.
    The three older men looked away, giving the girl time to compose herself as Corio put a shy arm about his cousin’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. It was almost the undoing of Cailin, but she somehow managed to find humor in her situation. Poor, good Corio was making an attempt to soothe her, while in reality his kindness was close to sending her into a fit of hysterics. She needed to weep and to grieve for her family, but not now.
Not here
. It would have to be later, when she could find a private place where no one else would see her tears. Cailin drew a deep, calming breath.
    “I am all right now,” she said, removing Corio’s protective arm.
    Her three uncles met her steady gaze with admiration, and Eppilus said, “You still wear your bulla, I see.”
    “I am not married,” Cailin told them.
    “Inside your bulla there is a small bit of stag’s horn, and a flat droplet of amber within which is a perfectly preserved tiny flower,” Eppilus told her. “Am I not right, Cailin?”
    “How did you know what my amulet contains?” she asked, surprised. “I thought that my mother and I were the only ones to know. Not even my grandmother knows what is within my bulla. It