In Which Camaline Marks a New Beginning

December 31, 1183

"Haggis?" If the goal hadn't been for as polite a visit as possible between ex-lovers, Camaline would have gagged. "That awful Scottish sheep stomach dish? That's what you're having cravings for?"

Aydelle laughed. To Camaline's relief, it was a little less musical than she remembered. Still pleasant, but not musical. "It's not as bad as it sounds, I swear."

"Easy for you to say. You'll eat anything." Aydelle smirked. Had that been bad form? She hadn't considered the double entendre, but if Aydelle seemed amused... "Um. How do you prepare that, anyway? And where do you get the, uh... ingredients?"

"I'm acquainted with one of the local shepherds. His grandmother was Scottish; he makes it for me."

"Well, as long as you don't have to make it yourself, I suppose." If Camaline could imagine one thing less pleasant than eating haggis, it was making it. She hoped for the shepherd's sake that he was of Aydelle's opinion, that apparently no food or preparation of was 'that bad'. "How are the girls? Do they have any plans for tonight?"

"No, it'll just be the three of us--me eating haggis, them eating anything else they can make and sitting as far from my dinner as possible. Happy New Year, right?" She shrugged. Camaline briefly entertained the idea of inviting Aydelle and the girls to her father-in-law's party, but thought the better of it. At six months, Aydelle probably wasn't keen to venture out of the shire for just one night, and while they were on track to becoming friends, it would take more visits than this one before they could really move past the stiff cordiality of former flames. Besides, there was no way any cook in Camaline's castle would touch a sheep stomach for less than a doubly-generous holiday bonus. "But yes, the girls are well. Thank you for helping with their school fees, by the way."

"Don't mention it. They both passed their scholarship eligibility tests, and since the sixteen-year-olds only come in two days a week for university prep, Hanna's fees weren't much." Aydelle's eldest had always been rather precociously bright. A pity that there hadn't been a good school around when she'd been younger, but Leara had always been good about letting Aydelle's girls sit in with her children's lessons, even they weren't quite at the same level. But Hanna would no doubt manage just fine with six months worth of preparatory work before starting at the university in the fall. "Has she thought much about her area of study?"

"I believe she's leaning toward Mathematics. She must have gotten it from my mother. Leina's more into History and Literature, like my father." A fond spark in her eye, she ran a hand over her belly, her third child just getting to the point of prominence within her core. It occurred to Camaline that she'd never heard Aydelle mention her parents before. "Pity that they were dead long before Hanna came along. They would have made good grandparents--if they could get past my divorce and my having a child with someone else's husband, that is."

Camaline nodded, though the thought hit a little close to home. Both of her parents were dead now too. She'd loved her father, but he never would have taken her preference for women well, and she didn't even want to imagine what he would have thought if he'd been sure of her sterility. She remembered little of her mother... but from what she did know, she got the feeling that she may have understood, perhaps well enough not to make a fuss.

Her mother probably would have liked Aydelle too.

"I'm sure they would have," she ventured, if only because the thought of such parental disgust was a little too much to bear. But perhaps the very notion of the thoughts of those past was misplaced, today of all days. It was New Years' Eve, and tomorrow was a new beginning, a future.

There was nothing in the past that couldn't wait for a spare moment--and in her future dealings with Aydelle, maybe she'd make a point to consider that. "I'm sure they'd be thrilled to know what bright futures their grandchildren have."

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