The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Diana L. Paxson Read Free Book Online Page A

to be told at the dinner table, nor before children."

    "We would do better," said Rheis, "to talk about our preparations for the feast of Beltane," and Mairi and the girls, as if at a signal, rose from the table. Cynric offered his arm to Gaius, and helped him back to his bed. The young Roman was a good deal

    more weary than he had realized; every muscle in his body ached, and though he was resolved not to sleep before he had thoroughly thought all this through, he soon found himself drifting off.

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    In the next few days, Gaius's injured shoulder swelled, which kept him abed in considerable pain - but Eilan, who nursed him devotedly, said that this discomfort was nothing to the illness that could have come from such a dirty stake.

    The only part of the day that was tolerable was when, two or three times a day, Eilan - who seemed to have appointed herself his nurse - brought him his meals and fed him, since he could hardly hold a spoon, let alone cut up meat. He had not been so close to any woman since his mother had died, and had never quite realized how much he had missed that closeness. Whether it was because she was female or because she was of his mother's people, or perhaps from some sympathy of spirit that went beyond either, he found himself truly able to relax with her. In the long hours between her appearances, he had nothing else to think about, and each day, it seemed, he looked forward to seeing her more.

    One morning Cynric and Rheis suggested that it would do him good to get out into the sunshine for a little and try to walk. He hobbled painfully out into the courtyard, where little Senara found him, prattling that she and Eilan were going to the meadow to pick flowers and make garlands for the Beltane festival the next day.

    Under normal circumstances the idea of going along with a couple of girls would not have attracted Gaius very much; but after his last few days in bed, he would have welcomed a trip to the cowshed to watch Mairi - or even the byre-woman - milk the cows. In fact it seemed more like a picnic; for Cynric and Dieda joined them. The younger girls bullied Cynric as if he were truly their brother, and gave him their shawls and the lunch basket to carry.

    Senara escorted Gaius; he leaned harder on her than he really wanted to, and told himself that he was humoring the child. Cynric seemed to hover over Dieda in something other than a brotherly way, talking in low tones. Watching them, Gaius wondered if they were pledged to each other; he did not know enough of this tribe's customs to tell, but he knew better than to bother them.

    They laid the contents of the lunch basket out on the grass; there was fresh baked bread and cold sliced roast meat, and apples —rather withered and brown - the last, the girls said, of the winter store.

    "Let me go find some berries." Senara jumped to her feet, looking around her, and Eilan laughed.

    "Silly, it's springtime. Do you think our guest is a goat you can feed on flowers?"

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    Gaius did not care what they ate; he was exhausted.

    There was a flask of pressed fruit juice and another of fresh brewed country beer. The younger girls would not drink it, saying it was too sour; but Gaius found it refreshing. There were sweet cakes too, which Dieda had made herself. She and Cynric shared a drinking horn and left Gaius to the company of the other girls.

    When they had all eaten as much as they could hold, Senara filled a bowl with clear water from a spring in the corner of the meadow and told Eilan to see if she could see the face of her sweetheart in it.

    "That is an old superstition," Eilan said, "and I have no sweetheart."

    "I have," Cynric said, seizing the bowl and staring into it. "Will the water show me your face, Dieda?"
    She came and looked over his shoulder. "It is all nonsense," she said. Gaius thought she looked prettier when she blushed.

    "Did you look in the water, Eilan?" asked Senara, tugging at her sleeve.

    Eilan said, "I