Page 118 of Queen of the Hollow Hills

Not noticing, Corva frowned and then said, “Come inside, my queen. We have all manner of messages to go through.”

I nodded, and gestured that I would follow her.

“Cartimandua?” Fabius asked again.

“It’s nothing. Just worries,” I said. “Something your Roman wine can help with, I suspect.”

“What better way to toast their launch?” Fabius replied with a smirk. “I’ll see to it.”

“Don’t water it down.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

CHAPTER 33

After the men left, the waiting in Rigodonum began to feel like an eternity. Days passed with no news. Feeling like I was going mad, I collected my guard and Corva and went into the village to visit Greer and Heather.

I found the little girl playing in the garden, laughing as she chased a butterfly while her mother pulled weeds.

Seeing them stopped me in my tracks, a deep feeling of despair waving over me.

I had come to shake my worries for Cormag, Ystradwel, Venu, and the others, only to be confronted with a sharp reminder of my losses. My hand went to my stomach, and I reached out for Corva.

“We do not have to stop,” Corva said. “Let’s return to the fort.”

“I…”

“Mum, Mum, Mum! Look!” the little girl called, pointing toward Corva and me.

Greer stood and looked. When she spotted us, she smiled. Wiping her hands on her apron, she joined us.

“You have your war, my queen, and I have mine. Unruly weeds,” she said, pointing back at her garden. The neat bedsshowed new tendrils and tender leaves poking from the ground. She had fixed frames for the vining vegetables to grow, and mounds of ground showed other growing things. Chicken and goats meandered behind the small roundhouse, one of the goats pausing to bleat at Corva and me.

“Let’s hope my war does not prove so fraught.”

Greer smiled. “Is there anything I can do for you, my queen? Is all well?”

Pushing my pain away, I merely smiled. “Just a visit to check on you and Heather.”

“Heather, come,” she called to the child.

I felt my chest tighten, but I reminded myself to breathe.

Greer picked Heather up and then smiled at me, “Come inside, my queen. My home is simple, but I have fresh ale.”

With that, she pushed open her garden gate and led me in to her little house.

Corva and I followed her inside.

A fire burned in the pit of the small roundhouse. A bed for Heather and Greer was built into the walls. She had a small table and crates with supplies. Pans for cooking hung from the posts. She had decorated her home with wheat wreaths. Effigies of Brigantia made of straw also adorned the walls, as well as a hand-sewn Brigantes banner. A small altar sat in one corner. On it, I saw clay figures of a man and woman side by side, a single man, and…two babies. Flowers adorned the shrine.

“Please, sit,” Greer said.

I smiled and took Heather from her arms. “Come here, pretty one. Let me see you,” I said, tickling her chin.

The little girl, whose hair had grown into long golden ringlets, laughed and played with my necklace while I sat.

Greer poured Corva and me an ale, filled herself a cup, and sat down with a tired huff.

---