[Nurumaiel]

Maercwen was leaning back in her chair, her two white hands clasped together, her face flushed with pleasure and excitement, and her eyes shining with delight. She was a lovely sight to behold, it was true, but the look that came to her face was lovelier still when two little children came stumbling into the room, holding hands and looking about them in confusion. One was a laddie, fair-haired and blue-eyed, his face freckled and cheery though not lacking the bold defiance and wildness that is often found in children of his age; the other was a lass, resembling Maercwen very much, her eyes and hair colored much the same as the little boy beside her, but her face was more lightly freckled and she was very pudgy while he was only slightly so. Standing behind them was another lad, but older than the two babyish-featured children by perhaps ten years, and he greatly resembled Liornung, in fact even more so than he did his father who was working in the stable. He was tall, almost as tall as Maercwen, a thoughtful, ponderous look upon his tanned features, but an eager light leapt to his eyes when they fell upon Liornung. He was holding 'the bonny baby laddie,' as little Drihten son of Leofan was often wont to be called by those who loved him dearest.

The three children skipped forward to their uncle and greeted him warmly. The young lad, Beorht, and the lass his twin Middaeg, fell upon him with shrieks as wild as those of Deman and Fierlan before them, and while the older lad Gomen merely gave his uncle a short embrace his eyes were shining with the excited thrills that passed through him. Liornung's face was something to see indeed! Such a wide smile was upon his countenance as he greeted his little niece and three nephews and it was apparent to see he delighted in children, especially those children of his brother. Drihten had buried his face shyly in Gomen's shoulder, peering out of big blue eyes at his uncle, a sly little smile flickering across his face, yet he showed no objection when Liornung took the baby on his knee. If one had ever seen the fond, caressing way Liornung had held his fiddle they could well imagine how he held his baby nephew with ten times the fondness and love.

Gomen, relieved of his burden of the baby, placed himself on the arm of Maercwen's chair and slipping an arm about her shoulders, greeted her a good afternoon, calling her his 'little sister.' She greeted him likewise and questioned him as to where the rest of the children were, saving Deman and Fierlan who were continuing their battle out by the stable. "Giefu is making himself a wooden sword in the stable," Gomen replied, "though I think Papa brought him out intending to teach him more about horses. Mereflod is helping Mamma in the kitchen, because you know, little Mae, how she likes to work. Motan is also in the stable, though by now she is probably fast asleep in some empty stall."

Liornung had put his free arm about the two-year-old twins and brought them closer to him, saying, "Hearpwine, this is my little niece Middaeg and her twin brother Beorht. This bonny babe here is Drihten," and here he put a hand upon the little head that was just growing fuzzy gold curls, "and that handsome lad there is Gomen. As for the others there are five more, I think, somewhere about. And that introduces you quite properly to my darling family."