Bill had not spoken to her since they had left the small sitting room where they had met with her uncle, her mother, and her cousin. They had been walking for almost a mile without Gwen having any idea where they were going. Her own thoughts were so confused and jumbled as to what had happened that she didn't know what she ought to say. She wasn't even sure what the result of the meeting had been. Gwen felt Bill's hand tighten on her arm and saw that he was directing her to step up, as there was a kerb ahead.
"Careful." Bill spoke quietly as Gwen almost tripped and then turned his eyes back to the road ahead and away from her.
But now that he had said something, Gwen had to ask. She did not know whether he was angry with her or merely digesting the results of the meeting, but she had to know what he was thinking. "Bill?"
Stopping immediately and looking down at her, Bill replied, "Yes?"
"What are we doing?"
"Going home, unless there is something else we need to do first."
"No, but I wish you would talk to me."
Bill set down the cat cage and sighed. "That went very badly, didn't it?"
"I don't know. I'm not so sure it did."
Bill raised his eyebrows and tilted his head as he asked, "Really?"
"Well you cowed Yaguel immediately. He was in awe of you, actually. You don't know Yaguel, but he is the worst bully of all my cousins and that is really quite a statement."
Bill's face expressed disgust, "Your cousin is a weasel. I know his type very well. But the real decision rests with your uncle, doesn't it? No matter what your mother thinks, his decision will be final, won't it?"
Gwen nodded. "Yes, of course. She wouldn't dare go against Uncle, unless maybe it had something to do with Father's health. Uncle Gwezheneg didn't react to you at all like I expected."
Bill took a deep breath and put his hand out to prop himself against the low wooden fence beside the road. "I don't know your uncle of course, Gwenaëlle, but it seemed to me that the man I just met hated me."
"I don't think it was hate, I think it was anger. He is furious that his will was countermanded. He is incredibly angry that you dared to step in and steal me from underneath his nose. But I really think that you made him respect you, which was what I was saying you would have to manage to achieve. I wasn't sure that you could be like that, Bill."
Bill seemed to be struggling with himself as he asked, "And are you glad to know that I can?"
Gwen shook her head, "Yes, but it didn't seem like you."
Bill swallowed hard and said tersely, "I hope not."
Gwen lowered her eyes from Bill's intense gaze and began to pick at the sleeve to her robe.
Bill reached out his hand and placed it under her chin to gently raise it so that she was looking at him again. "Have I won your respect, too, Gwenaëlle? That is more important to me than whether your uncle thinks that I am a real wizard or a gormless squib."
Gwen looked down uncomfortably and said, "You didn't have to win my respect, Bill. You already had it or I would not have married you."
Bill shook his head. "No, love, that is not true. I was putting on a display back there just as much to win you as I was to convince your uncle of anything. Let us be honest with each other."
When Gwen did not answer Bill picked her hand up in his and waited until she said thickly, "Yes, you did."
"Then it was worth it. Do you want to go home now?"
Gwen nodded. Bill picked up the cage, turned back to the road, and held out his free hand to her. Gwen started to go to him and then suddenly stopped. In a wobbly voice she asked, "You are happy that we did this, Bill?"
Bill dropped his hand and looked at her for a moment before saying, "I do not regret the marriage, Gwenaëlle. I am aware that an elopement was the only way that I could have got you. But there hasn't been much to be happy about yet, has there?"
Gwen wrapped her arms round herself and shook her head.
"I am hoping that will all change now that everything is out in the open and there isn't any reason for us to stay apart. Do you think that we shall find something to be happy about now, love?" Bill was standing very close to her as he talked.
Gwen replied uncertainly, "I hope so."
Bill smiled down at her and said softly, "Should we try side-along apparation then?"
"Oh, can you?"
Bill nodded. "I should think so. All it needs is additional concentration and will. But if you are too nervous about it then we can summon the Knight Bus."
Gwen lifted her hand to his chest briefly and said, "No, I trust you."
"I never realised that I was so wand-dependant."
Elisabeth dropped her wand and turned about to face Gwen, who was reading the label on a bottle of anti-doxy powder. "You don't have to use a wand for everything. I'm sure you will find ways to do things without."
"It took me an hour to do the washing up this morning. Bill won't let me do it the muggle way when he's here – he just does the spell for me. But I don't like that he has to help."
Elisabeth looked at her nails with embarrassment, unsure what to say. "It is sweet that he wants to help though, Gwen. I think many wizards would let you do it all and not worry about how you did it."
"He tried letting me use his wand to do up the draperies, which honestly Elisabeth could that witch have chosen anything uglier? But our magic isn't terribly compatible apparently, because I had to concentrate like a first year to control his wand."
Elisabeth cast a glance over at the dark green curtains and said uneasily, "He must be very powerful to have such a difficult wand."
"Yes, he is. I don't think I'll use his wand very often. It was too much effort."
"Do you plan to redo the house or just rearrange everything?"
Gwen made a face at the gaudy umbrella stand in the corner. "I don't think he has very much gold for me to buy new things, Elisabeth. In any case, he loved her and so he won't like me coming in and getting rid of everything she bought for their home all at once. It will have to be a gradual eradication, I think."
"At least the mirror."
"Oh heavens, yes. That stupid thing must be charmed to tell her that she was the most beautiful witch of all or something, because do you know what it said to me this morning?"
Elisabeth shook her head.
"It said, 'It is unfortunate about that nose, my dear. However not every witch can be born with the features of a goddess.'"
Elisabeth burst out laughing. "Oh Gwen it didn't!"
Gwen looked rather miffed as she replied, "I rather like my nose. Now if the mirror had commented about my eyes or my pasty complexion…"
Elisabeth gasped as she tried to stop laughing. "When you were out of the room…it..it said to me that it was so sorry that I had such splotchy skin and recommended a 'Glowing Beauty' potion."
Gwen snorted. "That thing goes today. The mirror and those cushions. I never knew it was possible to have so many tassels, cords, and tufts on one little square pillow."
Elisabeth took a deep breath to keep herself from laughing again. "If you weren't here I would say it must be French style."
Appreciating her friend's return to their familiar joke, Gwen smiled and said, "Yes we French do like our houses to look as though we are half blind and quite demented."
"I thought so. Do you want me to help with the doxy powder or should I go back and finish finding places for all those books?"
"I can do the powder - no wand required. If you could help rid the floor of all those stacks then I'll promise you a chocolate tart when you come tomorrow."
Elisabeth gaily replied, "Consider it done."
Bill woke suddenly with the knowledge that something was definitely wrong. As he groped under his pillow for his wand and sat up in the bed, he saw his wife's cat standing at the foot of the bed, staring at him. Ignoring Alaric, who still disliked Bill with a passion, Bill slid from the bed and shoved his feet into slippers and moved across the floor to the door. As soon as he opened it, however, Bill could hear angry voices coming from the sitting room. He could recognise one as Gwen, who was speaking furiously in a mixture of French patois and the strange, harsh Breton form of Gaelic.
As he reached the sitting room he heard Gwen shout something that sounded like, "Avat! Me karout ma gwaz, Mammig! Il faut q'vous le comp'nez. M'n'regrette rien sauf q'on blessa Tadig."
He could not understand the shrill tones of the other witch's voice, but he was certain that Gwen was speaking to her mother via floo and that the conversation was about him.
Gwen responded unintelligibly in a rough, guttural voice that was unlike anything that Bill had ever imagined coming from her. He could now hear the other woman better and did not need a translation to understand the gist of what was probably being said. It seemed that Gwen had not heard or seen him enter the room, so Bill propped himself up against the wall and looked into the flames at the face of the woman who was speaking.
However Marc'harit Gurley had apparently seen him, because at a word from her Gwen spun round on her heels and gasped, "Bill! Me croya q'vo dorma encore. Si vo me laissa discuter 'vec Mammig, t'plait?"
Understanding her patois enough to grasp that Gwen was asking him to please allow her to speak to her mother in private, Bill shook his head. Speaking clearly and loudly in French so that Gwen's mother would have no excuse to misunderstand, Bill said, "Dame Marc'harit, I know that I explained very clearly when we met that I would not allow for you or any of your family to bully Gwenaëlle, assault her, or cause her any further distress. I specifically asked you not to contact your family either, Gwen."
Gwen stepped back slightly from Bill and replied in English, "I am sorry, Bill. I didn't actually contact her - Mother requested that I wait for her to floo me tonight, so that she could discuss Father's condition."
Bill frowned. "If that were so then there was no reason to hide it from me was there? Is your father doing any better?"
"No. They are leaving to come back to Wales. Mother has got her residency permit."
Bill turned back to the flames and gestured with his wand to end the floo connexion. "Now what was that really about, Gwen?"
"Well she said that she wanted to talk to me about Father."
"But you knew that was not all she would want to discuss. Why didn't you tell me that she was going to floo here tonight?"
Gwen bit her lip and hesitated before admitting, "Because if you didn't know about it then you couldn't actually forbid me to talk to her."
Bill made a gesture of real frustration. "I don't want to forbid you to do anything. I want to discuss things like adults and come to mutual decisions, Gwen. I only asked you not to talk to them because we agreed that it would be better if you didn't."
Gwen did not speak. Bill stood watching her whilst she looked at him as if she were waiting for something.
"Don't you understand that you could very well have made your mother angry enough that she will decide to apply restrictions against you? It is better for neither of us to interact with your family, Gwen."
Gwen looked over at the fireplace, which now contained only a few glowing coals, and then turned away from Bill.
"Don't turn away from me, Gwenaëlle. Tell me what you needed to say to your mother that was important enough to risk talking to her again."
Gwen turned round and looked at Bill unhappily. "I don't know. I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."
"Did she say something that I ought to know about or was it all the same things I've already heard?"
Gwen's expression changed and she looked almost hopefully at Bill. "You didn't hear what we said?"
"I understood very little, since you were not speaking in French most of the time."
Gwen walked forward so that she was standing close enough that her forehead was touching his chest. "It was mostly more of the same."
Bill wrapped his arms round his wife and said exhaustedly, "Please don't talk to her again, love. It doesn't help anything and it upsets you too much."
"You're right, Bill. I won't."
Bill did not feel like there had been any real victory for either him or Gwen in their conversation, but was too tired to want to spend any more time talking. "Will you come back with me to bed?"
"Yes, Bill. Me skuizh."
Having no idea what she had just said, Bill kissed the top of Gwen's head and directed her towards the bedroom.
Gwen stared down at the parchment that was in her hands and then looked over at Bill, who appeared to be completely adsorbed in his book. Ginny's owl had been polite, but not friendly. It was clear that Gwen was not forgiven and that Ginny was not particularly interested in mending fences yet. Gwen fingered the strange new wand in her pocket and considered whether there was anything that could be done. Deciding that there was not, Gwen sent the parchment to the fire with the wand, noting that even with a week's practise she still felt like a novice.
Bill had told her that unregistered wands were notoriously rough to learn to control. It was possible to do even very powerful spells with them, since they harnessed raw power well, but rarely could one do the most delicate spells. That morning had proven Bill right - Gwen had tried to set her hair into plaits, but had not been able to control the weave and had given it up.
"Has your control improved at all?"
Gwen looked up from her lap and saw that Bill was no longer reading and had turned all of his attention on her. "Not much. I suppose that it takes time. But at least I can really perform spells unlike with your wand."
"That was because centaur and merman hair wands are particularly difficult, since both are sentient creatures. Yours has three unicorn hairs, so it should be somewhat better at fine magic than most unregistered wands. At least that was my hope when I got it."
Gwen nodded and wondered again how much money he had been forced to pay to procure a wand for her. She had not wanted to ask him, since it might seem that she was ungrateful, but she wondered if he had spent most of his savings just to get her a wand.
"My father checked with the Ministry again. There are still no sanctions or restrictions applied to you by the Central Ministry."
"I suppose that means that they are not going to publicly denounce us. They would have done so by now. But I am afraid that they aren't going to acknowledge us either, which means that they could still hold this over our heads."
"My father researched the statutes on that as well. The Central Ministry gives Breton families a year to either approve or refuse the marriages of their children. After that the Central Ministry will consider all marriages valid, no matter what Breton officials might do."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. They can choose not to officially approve and after a year it is essentially accepted as a fait accompli. You will be able to travel into France, if not Brittany, and you could openly use a wand again without any fear."
"Do you think that they will choose to do that?"
Bill nodded his head. "If they publicly denounce the marriage then it harms their social status by reflection. I pointed that out to your uncle, if you remember. I think that they are going to ignore us, although your mother may still try to do me more harm. It is lucky for me that goblins don't care a damn about anything other than the fact that I make them money. Were I working for wizards we would not have been so lucky."
"They are still going to transfer you back into curse breaking, Bill?"
Bill smiled at her. "I made loads more gold for them as a curse breaker. I could have had my old job back at any time; in fact they have been pressuring me for months."
"I am glad. You hate the other job."
Bill stood up and moved closer to where she was sitting. "No, but it was very dull. I will have to return to it eventually."
Gwen allowed Bill to stroke her cheek lovingly as she asked, "Why?"
Frowning, Bill replied seriously, "As I have said before, I think that it will eventually get old for you following me round the world to whatever job I am working on. If there are ever children, you won't want them raised in that environment, love."
"Why not?"
Bill drew his hand through her hair and said with an edge to his voice, "We don't need to discuss that again right now, Gwen."
Gwen looked up at him and nodded acquiescence. After a moment of silence she said suddenly, "Are you hungry?"
"Very."
Gwen stood up and deftly avoided his grasp with a smile as she said, "I had planned to make krampouezh. Hopefully I won't burn them with this wand."
"Crepes sound wonderful. Do you want me to do a fry up whilst you cook them?"
Gwen shrugged her shoulders, "No, I made a soup earlier."
Bill did not completely manage to suppress an urge to grimace, but Gwen did not choose engage him again on his opinions on Breton-style stews.
