A/N: Sorry this took so long. The muse made me grovel before she'd grant me her inspiration. The reference to Brecca's awareness of women is taken from the movie Big Fish.

Cearo moved to Elfhild's one week later under the guise of going to help her with last-minute preparations for the wedding. She was sure Helm, Aelfrid, and Brego suspected the real reason but if they did, they never said anything, not that Aelfrid or Brego had much chance to. Algar made certain his sons were occupied with tasks that kept them away from the house most of the day and Cearo kept herself busy inside the house in the evenings, ensuring neither man would have any opportunity to talk about anything more serious than that season's crops and the foals which were due to be born any time now. She tried to ignore the way Aelfrid looked at her but it was hard to avoid in a house as small as theirs and much too often she'd accidentally meet his eyes and no matter how fast she managed to look away, what she saw there made her heart twist and her mouth go dry.

"Come outside with me," Elfhild said a few nights after Cearo arrived. "We haven't had a chance to talk since the beginning of spring."

Cearo eagerly agreed, her eyes sore from straining to see while she embroidered the hem of Elfhild's wedding overdress by firelight. Thankfully, she was nearly done and was sure she could finish tomorrow afternoon.

"How excited are you?" Cearo asked as she stepped outside with Elfhild. "Nervous?"

Elfhild laughed. "Very. Some days I feel as if I will be a terrible wife and I will never be able to get the fire going again if it goes out and I am still terrible at making soap and weaving." She sighed. "Do you think Rheda would be willing to let you come live with Helm and me after we're married? You make the best soap. You can teach me how."

"A better question is if Wilone will let me come live with you and Helm," Cearo replied dryly. "My darling little sister threw an absolute fit when I told her I was coming to stay with you until the wedding and refused to let me out of her sight for two days straight until Pa told her she could come to visit me every other day. Even then, she was incredibly clingy and I had to sneak away from the house while Ma distracted her so I could come here."

"Is that the sad wailing I heard the night you came?" Elfhild teased. "I was wondering who had died. If Wilone will not allow you to come live with us, do you think you could come over regularly and help me?"

"I'm sure that can be arranged." She smiled slyly. "Are you sure you want anyone else around?"

"You're terrible, Cearo!"

"What else are friends for, if not to tease you mercilessly?" She gave Elfhild a side hug. "Of course I'll come over regularly. I would anyway to see my favorite brother."

"I'm marrying Helm, not Aelfrid." When Cearo didn't say anything, Elfhild looked over at her friend. "Cearo?" she asked, concerned, when she saw her friend's face was now drawn and unsmiling. "What's wrong?"

"Everything," Cearo replied with a sigh and told Elfhild about Brego and Aelfrid. "That's the real reason I came," she admitted. "I had to get away from them."

"Both of them?" Elfhild wasn't surprised to hear of Aelfrid's interest as she'd suspected it for quite a while but Brego…when had he become interested in her friend? The last she'd been aware, Brego considered Cearo a pest to be tolerated for his mother's sake. What had changed his mind?

Cearo nodded. "Both of them. It frightens me, the way they look at me. I'm not ready for this." She hugged herself. "Why can't brothers stay brothers and friends stay friends? I'm happy with things the way they've always been. Why can't they stay that way? Why do they have to go and be stupid and want to change everything and ruin it all?"

"Bema alone knows, my dear." Elfhild put an arm around the younger woman's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "May I offer some advice?"

"Only if it's a way to get them to leave me alone."

Elfhild chuckled. "Not exactly. Give Aelfrid a chance."

Cearo pulled away. "What? Did he tell you to say that? Did Helm tell you to?"

"No and no. You are the only one who has said anything to me about this. Give Aelfrid a chance. He loves you, Cearo. More than a few have suspected it for a while."

"And you didn't say anything to me?"

"I did not know for sure and I did not want to risk being wrong and causing problems. You two do live in the same house."

"You could have warned me."

"I left that to Helm."

Cearo felt her temper start to rise. "Helm suspected and he never said anything?"

"Yes, and he agreed with me that it would likely cause more trouble than it was worth to say anything to you. What good would it do to say anything before you were twenty?"

"I could have told Aelfrid to stop it and go find someone else."

"It does not work that way, Cearo. You cannot just tell someone to not love you or to go love someone else. Think about it. If you are this uncomfortable now, how uncomfortable would you have been if I or Helm or someone else had told you what we suspected a year or more ago?" Cearo didn't say anything. "It would only have made trouble, especially if Aelfrid was not in love with you."

Cearo had to admit Elfhild had a point, but she did so only to herself. "Aelfrid wanted me to listen to him. He said if I would not now, I would have to on my birthday when he asked Pa for permission to court me. He shut up, mostly, after I told him I didn't want to hear it. Brego refused to let go of my hand and told me I should get used to it and he scares me more than Aelfrid does. The way he looks at me…there's something in his eyes that makes me feel like a tiny mouse being stared at by a big, hungry cat."

"You have a say in who courts you and who you marry. Remember that," Elfhild said, taking Cearo's hand and giving it a squeeze. "I wouldn't blame you if you refused Brego. Something about him makes my skin itch like fleas biting in July. Did he tell you what it is about you he finds so attractive and interesting?"

"Nothing, other than it would have been easier to see me as a sister if I was a skinny little stick. Bema knows we've never gotten along very well. I have no idea what about me he's so interested in. He's always criticized me."

In the remaining weeks before the wedding, nothing more was said about Cearo's problem with Aelfrid and Brego. As promised, Wilone came to visit every other day, usually with Helm.

"I want you back," Wilone whinged to Cearo a week before the wedding while they made flower crowns near the house. "Ma isn't no fun."

"Ma is not any fun," Cearo corrected, "and I'm sure she is. She's just busy and doesn't have as much time to play with you as I did. Don't you play with Tellan or Grindan?"

Wilone glowered. "They knock me down and make me be the orc and don't tell me about Tom the Toad." As if for emphasis, she stuck her thumb in her mouth.

Cearo pulled the little girl onto her lap. "I'm sorry, honey. I wish I could come play with you but it's too far to ride back and forth each day."

"Can I stay with you? Please?"

"I don't think Ma would like that and I wouldn't have time to play with you right now. I'm busy helping Elfhild and her ma get ready for when she marries Helm."

"Why are they doing that?"

"Because they love each other very much and they want the whole world to know."

"Why do they need you to help them? Can't they tell everyone on their own?"

"It's a really big celebration and Elfhild and her ma need my help cooking for everyone who's going to come hear Helm and Elfhild say how much they love each other and I'm making Elfhild's overdress pretty."

"Can't you do that at home?"

Cearo hugged her sister tightly. "I wish, Little Bird, but they need me here."

"Alfrid misses you, too. He wants you to come back. C'ro, what's wrong?" Wilone looked up at her sister, who'd gone tense.

"Nothing, honey. I'm fine." Cearo forced a smile. "I'll come home after the wedding." After a moment, she asked, "Has Brego said anything?"

Wilone shrugged. "I dunno. He and Pa yelled a lot after you left and he stays gone a lot."

'Wonder what they fought over,' Cearo mused. 'Maybe Helm knows.' "Do you miss him?"

Wilone shook her head. "He's no fun to play with."

If Helm knew what Brego and Algar had fought over, he wasn't telling.

"I was not there when it happened," he told her later while saddling Sherwyn up to leave. "It was not just about you."

"The woman near the Gap?"

Helm glanced at her. "How did you know about that?" he asked, surprised.

Smirking, she cocked an eyebrow. "I have my ways. Brego told me Pa already knew about that. What else has Brego done?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with." He pulled her into a hug. "We miss you at home."

"So Wilone told me. She mentioned Aelfrid wishes I was home."

"He is not the only one, Lig." He tugged her braid. "We all miss you."

"Even Tellan and Grindan?"

Helm chuckled. "They wouldn't admit it if you asked them."

"Do you?"

"What a stupid question." He tugged her braid again. "Of course I do! It's boring without you goading the boys to pull pranks or dropping them in the manure pile when they won't do what you want."

"I only did that once!" Helm laughed. "See if your boots don't end up filled with manure! Elfhild wants me to come live with you two after you're married to help her."

"Help her with what? Burning the food and losing the sheep?" Cearo glowered at him and ground her heel into his toes. "What did you tell her when she asked?"

"That I was sure she'd be fine and was she sure she-you two wanted anyone else around?"

"Why would we not?" Helm asked innocently. Cearo laughed.

"I'm not Wilone, Helm. I know why you two wouldn't want anyone else around. At least for a while."

"You know less than you think."

"I've seen horses and I've heard the stories. I know what men and women do. I'm not stupid."

"That is not what I meant. Could you go find Wilone? Ma will yell herself hoarse if I return too late with our sister."

The day of the wedding dawned overcast and rainy for the fifth day in a row. Elfhild, to Cearo's intense annoyance, was driving herself to distraction worrying over the weather.

"I will shove her overdress in her mouth," she muttered under her breath as she dashed out to the privy under a cloak, "if she doesn't shut up about the stupid rain." It wasn't a big deal if they had to gather in the tavern instead of the center of the village for Helm and Elfhild to say their vows. Yes, everyone would get wet going over but everyone was damp enough already it hardly mattered and the old wives' tale about rain being bad luck was bollocks. Plenty of people had been married on a rainy day and gone on to have long, happy marriages and no more of their children died than couples who had married on sunny days. Cearo rolled her eyes. When she married, she was going to make sure someone slapped her if she started acting stupid like Elfhild was.

Elfhild, who was standing by the door, grabbed Cearo's arm as she came back into the house.

"Is the rain slowing?" she demanded.

"It's a slower kind of totally drenching than it was the last time you asked," Cearo said dryly. "I think I'm only mostly soaked instead of entirely. Elfhild, worrying about the rain is not going to change anything. Brecca said weeks ago he's happy to let us use the tavern for the wedding and the feast afterwards if it's raining so there is no problem with where the wedding is going to be and if there will be room for everyone. Why don't you get your overdress and go over to the tavern and start dressing for the wedding? Your ma and I will come over with the food and we'll get the tables and benches set up for the wedding."

"I wanted to have it outside!"

"What, in the mud? Even if it stopped raining now, it would still be a total mess outside. Having it in the tavern is the best idea." She pried Elfhild's hand off her arm. "Get your overdress and go to the tavern and ask Brecca if he minds helping your ma and I move the tables and benches."

"I wanted to have flowers in my hair."

Cearo bit the inside of her cheek and counted to twenty. "I know where I can find flowers for your hair. I'll take care of all of that. I'll find flowers to set around the tavern as well. Just go." She walked over to the fire to talk to Elfhild's ma before Elfhild could start whinging again.

Soaked to the skin, but bearing a huge armload of wildflowers, Cearo entered the tavern an hour later. Much to her pleasure, the tables had been moved to the perimeter of the room and the benches set up in rows for people to sit on.

"Hello, lovely girl," Brecca greeted her from behind the bar. With a wink, he asked, "What do you say we make it a double ceremony today?"

Cearo laughed. "You know I'd love nothing more but I'm not twenty yet, Brecca. Pa would never allow it."

"Only three more days, Cearo. Surely he wouldn't argue over three days when true love is involved!"

"He might not but I'm sure your wife would." She set the flowers down on the nearest table and shed her drenched cloak, lying it across a bench near the fire to dry out.

"Who cares about her?" The older man laughed. "Thrilled to see that rascal Helm finally settling down?"

"Elfhild is too good for him," she quipped. "It's his good fortune so if she wants to settle for a lout like him, who am I to argue? I'd like to think she'll make a real man out of him." Both she and Brecca laughed. "Can you spare some mugs for the flowers? I promised Elfhild I'd bring flowers to put around the tavern since she was so upset the wedding couldn't be outside."

"Only if you agree to marry me today."

"Only if your wife says it's okay." She grinned and made her way over to the bar. "A mug for each table should be enough."

"You're a lovely girl, my dear," Brecca remarked with a rare seriousness, wiping out a mug and pushing it across the bar to Cearo. "If I was younger, I'd ask to court you."

She felt herself blush. "Thank you."

"And not just because there are so few women within an easy riding distance. You're a fine woman and you'll make some man a wonderful wife." He smiled knowingly. "I know of a few men who would love to make today a double ceremony."

"So do I," she replied dryly. "Not that it would happen. Even if Pa would allow it, I wouldn't."

Brecca cackled with laughter. "I remember being young and impatient. Couldn't wait to go and ask Dagmar's pa for permission to court her. I thought I would burst out of my skin."

"And you've regretted it every day since, or so you always say," Cearo quipped. "So has Dagmar. I can understand why. How she puts up with you always making eyes at other women, I have no idea."

"She beats me with her broom," Brecca said matter-of-factly.

"Smart woman." Cearo bit the inside of her cheek and looked down at the bar for a moment to keep from laughing. It was a joke in the village that Brecca was aware of only two women in the world: Dagmar and Not Dagmar. "I hope when I marry it's like you and Dagmar."

"You're going to beat him with your broom?" Brecca teased.

"Every day," she replied dryly. "I'm serious, Brecca. I want to be as happy and in love as you two are." She straightened up and carried an armload of mugs over to the table where the flowers were. "Where is Dagmar?"

"Counting our barrels of ale to make sure we have enough for the feast afterwards."

"We have ale for the feast. We don't need to use yours."

"Where do you think your parents were getting the ale from?"

Cearo chuckled. "That would explain why I never saw any barrels anywhere, if it was being stored here."

"I was not sure if it would arrive in time for the wedding, seeing as it had to come from Edoras but it arrived yesterday, thank Bema."

"That far? You don't have enough of your own?"

"Mine is ordinary ale. This is a wedding! We need the best!" Brecca sounded horrified by the idea of serving the usual ale, as if it would be a crime against nature to do so.

"You don't have to go through so much trouble. You know we all love your ale." 'Some of us too much,' she thought archly, remembering the last time some of her brothers came home totally and completely drunk and puking.

"It's my gift to them."

"You have a truly noble heart, Brecca, and don't try to convince me otherwise." Cearo looked at him over her shoulder. "Everyone knows you're not really a grouchy old man."

Brecca snorted. "Tell Dagmar that."

Cearo grinned at him. "I will."

When people began to arrive for the wedding, Cearo hurried to the storeroom at the back of the tavern Elfhild was using to change in. "We have plenty of time," Cearo said when Elfhild opened her mouth to say something. "I have the flowers for your hair," she held up several deep blue blossoms which matched the color of Elfhild's eyes, "and there are bunches in mugs on every table. Dagmar, Ma, and your mother are all working together in the kitchen to make sure food will be ready after the ceremony. There is plenty of ale." Cearo held her tongue about where it had come from. That was for Brecca to say.

"Is Helm here yet?" the nervous bride asked.

"Not yet but there is still plenty of time. I came early so I wouldn't be rushed doing your hair. Let's light a few more candles so I can see what I'm doing."