Without raising her head from what she was doing, Gwen asked sharply, "What are you doing?"
Bill's hand dropped from where he was leaning against the entrance as he replied with surprise, "I didn't think you knew I was there. I was watching you."
Gwen looked up from the small sewing frame in her lap and said with illusory seriousness, "I'm not deaf, Bill. You have quite large feet you know – anyone could have heard you coming."
Bill laughed. "I would have failed the stealth portion of Auror training apparently."
Gwen turned back to her sewing with a shrug. "Which your brother has finally passed, I understand."
Bill ducked down so that he could enter the tent fully and smiled tentatively, "Yes. Did Mum owl you, too? I don't think that she can decide whether she is happy that he is fully trained now and can be expected to manage himself in the field without getting himself killed through incompetence or more frightened that he will now be sent on assignments since he is qualified."
Gwen cast a solemn look at Bill. "As long as he was only a trainee, Bill, then she had hopes that he still might not be an Auror. All of you lot decided on careers that were almost designed to terrorise a mother, but Ron chose the worst. She is now in daily dread of receiving a Lecteur owl."
Bill shook his head and placed a hand on Gwen's shoulder as he said firmly, "No. He is going to be fine. He is well prepared after three years of Auror training. There won't be any more Lecteurs."
Gwen set down her frame and stood up from the chair. "I think you and I both have had enough of them in the last few years, yes. But she worries about you almost as much as she does about Ron, you know, now that we are here."
"She will worry no matter where I am, Gwen. I think that is what you mothers do, isn't it love?"
Gwen turned her head towards the tent flaps that led to a small bedroom where a charmed harp could be heard softly playing and replied, "I had no idea how naturally it came. Now that Charles is walking I am always afraid he will get into something dangerous. I do not understand how English mothers can bear to leave their infants off a tether. It is not natural."
Bill smiled and replied gently. "It doesn't matter what English mothers do, love, you should follow your own customs. Charles doesn't know what it means to be Breton, French, or English. He just knows that you are his mother and he is one of the happiest babies I've ever seen."
"He is happy, isn't he? That is your influence, I think. He might look like me, Bill, but his personality is all you. He won't really be Breton, no matter what I teach him."
Bill frowned and placed his arms round his wife loosely so he could still look into her face as he asked, "Will that disappoint you, love? We can still move to Morbihan. Now that your cousin Yaguel heads the family things could be very different. He has offered you acceptance, hasn't he?"
Gwen shook her head. "That does not matter. With Mother and Uncle both dead there is not enough protection for me now in Brittany. I have explained all of this to you before, Bill. The current Master of the Bizouarn is still my father's cousin Cadoc. He does not want any descendants of the last master in Morbihan, Bill. That was why my mother had to flee into Wales after my father's death. Only once my uncle's supporters became strong enough was it safe for Mother to return with me. When Uncle Gwezheneg died all of my protection vanished with him. Charles would not be safe."
Bill kissed the top of Gwen's head and asked, "Yaguel's position is still too weak? I thought that he had married Servan de Plougastel's sister. Surely de Plougastel is enough of an ally for your family."
Gwen finally smiled. "So you are listening when I talk about all of this then? Yes, Yaguel married Clariadne de Plougastel, but they haven't had any children yet. Not until they have any children will that alliance really be sealed, Bill. Until then I won't go into Morbihan with Charles."
Bill shook his head. "Then that is settled. I only want to be sure that you know I would go if you think it would be better for Charles or for you."
After giving him a slight smile, Gwen wriggled free of Bill's grasp and settled heavily back into her well-cushioned chair as she said, "But it isn't better for you or for Charles that you give up your career, Bill. You can't work for Gringotts if we are in Brittany. Anyway, I think that it is good for us here. Charles has several other children nearby with whom he loves to play and there aren't that many places we can live where wizarding children are so close to each other."
Bill frowned with concern. "But the heat has been bothering you. I can tell that you are feeling ill much of the time."
As Bill sat down on the ottoman in front of her and placed her badly swollen feet in his lap, Gwen smiled softly at him. "Yes, but I felt just this bad with Charles, you know. And we were in England then, so it doesn't follow that I'll be any less miserable if we left Egypt. The baby will be here in less than three weeks if all goes well anyway."
Rubbing his hand along her shins as he gazed devotedly at Gwen, Bill commented, "It hardly seems possible that Charles is already fourteen months old and there will be a new one soon."
Gwen leant back into her chair and replied, "You had an active hand in that you know."
Gwen had spoken so sarcastically that Bill had to stare at her for a moment before he was certain that she had been teasing him. Laughing as he spoke, Bill replied, "How can I help it? You're completely irresistible. But I'm going to be paying for it, too, aren't I?"
Gwen reached out her hand to grasp his as she said with amusement, "You have got quite excellent at nappies. That isn't a skill that you would want to let go to waste really."
Bill raised her hand to his lips and kissed it as he looked directly at her. He responded with deceptive seriousness, "I was utterly deceived when I married you, love. I had always heard that Breton witches were fiercely house proud and never required wizards to be involved in anything having to do with children or the kitchen. I had these marvellous visions of my dutiful, obedient little wife waiting on me hand and foot as I lounged about drinking a nice glass of Black Aquavit at the end of the day and look what I got instead."
Gwen laughed throatily and said, "You poor, poor man. Why did you think I married an English wizard?"
Bill leant forward so that he could whisper in her ear, "Because we are so easy to enslave?"
Gwen turned so that she could whisper back, "Precisely."
Bill's voice dropped even lower as he asked, "It didn't have anything to do with love?"
"Not a thing."
"How very disappointing."
Gwen pressed her face so close that her nose was touching his as she asked, "Is it?"
"Yes, because the box I have in my pocket was meant for the witch who loves me. But I suppose that doesn't mean you."
Gwen responded immediately to his kiss before replying, "No, that would definitely not be me. I'm only the witch who desperately loves you. That's rather different."
Bill's hand was holding Gwen's head gently as he peered searchingly into her eyes before he kissed her nose and said, "Yes my darling, that is rather different. How fortunate that your wizard is hopelessly in love with you then. Did you want to see what is in the box?"
Gwen nuzzled his ear with her nose and whispered, "Yes, please."
