Eilan supposed there was no accounting for taste; she herself did not think Cynric was particularly attractive, but Dieda certainly did. But Gaius was something different; to her he did not seem typically Roman, not in any way. Nor did Gaius himself appear to think of his Roman lineage as anything very special. Certainly he could not if he was for a time thinking of abandoning it for marriage with me, she told herself then.
She had never for an instant considered marrying anyone else; and as for men, the world was full of them. She hardly realized how much thinking of Gaius had come between her old life and what now seemed natural to her.
“Eilan, you are daydreaming again,” Caillean remarked sharply. “Go and find Senara and tell her what you have discovered; and then go to Latis for your lesson. If you can manage to pay attention, some day you may be as skilled in the lore of herbs as Miellyn.”
Thus admonished, Eilan went about her duties; but she could not resist going obsessively over and over every word she had said to Gaius and every word he had said to her. She could not believe she would never see or speak with him again; he seemed too much a part of her life even after their formal goodbye.
That night when she went in her turn to wait upon Lhiannon, the older woman looked at her with dismay.
“What is this I have heard? That you have been out of the temple to meet with a man? This is not the behavior expected of a priestess of the Forest House. I am disappointed in you,” she chided.
Eilan colored angrily. But this was why she had asked Caillean to witness their meeting, after all. “I said not one word to him that could not have been spoken in the presence of all of you.”
Lhiannon sighed. “I did not say you did, but the fact of the matter is that it was not spoken in the presence of all of us, and
there will be talk. The Goddess be thanked, Caillean was there; but she should have known that we cannot afford to have even the suspicion of scandal, so it is she and not you who will be punished for it. But I beseech you before you do anything of this kind again, think that you have brought punishment down on the head of another. You are young, Eilan, and the young are always thoughtless.”
“Punished? But that is not fair! What will you do to her?” Eilan asked apprehensively.
“I will not beat her, if that is what you are thinking,” Lhiannon said smiling. “Even when she was a small child, I never beat her; perhaps I should have done. As for her punishment, that is for her to tell if she wishes.”
“But, Mother,” Eilan protested, “it was you who told me to find out if the child had any family.”
“I did not say that you should inquire among the Romans,” Lhiannon said irritably. Eilan wondered how in the world she could have been expected to find out about the relatives of a Roman child in any other way.
Later, among the priestesses, Eilan found an opportunity to speak to Caillean. “Lhiannon told me she had to punish you. Can you forgive me? Will it be too bad? She said she would not beat you.”
“She will not,” Caillean said. “There is a house in the forest where she will probably send me to spend time meditating on my sins while I clear away the brushwood and weeds with which it is surrounded and put the place in order. It’s not much of a punishment; Lhiannon probably does not realize that it is actually a luxury to me to be alone with my music and my thoughts. So you must not think I am being ill treated.”
“Alone in the forest? But won’t you be frightened?”
“What should frighten me? Bears? Wolves? Wandering men? The last bears in this part of the world were trapped over thirty years ago. How long is it since you have seen so much as a wolfskin rug in the market? And as for men, you have good cause to know that I could frighten away any man alive. No, I am not afraid.”