My father is Cynwrig and he is the younger brother of our clan chief.  That is why our roundhouse is one of the biggest and finest in the village.  As father says, he has his honour and the honour of his brother to uphold.  Which is all and well, but I wonder sometimes if anyone really cares so much.  Father's first wife, Aderyn also lives with us.  I am that fond of her and so is my mother.  But the poor lady is very ill.  She fell down, some years ago and afterwards, her left arm and leg were unable to move, and the left side of her face was all pulled down.  She cannot talk and can do little for herself.  So mother and I care for her and do all for her.  And it is our pleasure as well as our duty to do so, for she was always gentle to my mother.

Aderyn has two sons.  The oldest, Aled used to live in our house.  But when he got married, his new wife objected saying it was all too crowded and her delicate nerves could not stand it.  Aled, more fool him, listened to her and put out much expense to build another house for her.  They have two children of their own, and truth be told, I do not miss them.  Aled's younger brother is Aneirin and he does live here. He has a wife too, my dearest friend Blodeuyn, which made me very happy when he married her.  Aneirin is a fisherman so he is often away for days at a time.  Blodeuyn has a baby girl all of her own and I envy her.  Sometimes she lets me look after her baby, if Aderyn does not need me or mother.  One day I will have a baby of my own too, though I fear that day is so far away.

My own mother is Mairwen and she is not of our clan.  There was a day when some men of our village went raiding and they brought back captives to be slaves and work for us.  My mother was one of them; she was of the faery folk, being so small and dark and delicate featured.  My father loved her the moment he saw her, as he says to anyone who will listen.  He had not gone on the raid, but he begged his brother  and pledged all he had to buy her.  And then he freed her and married her.  I am her first born and her second is my brother Arvel.  He was very small and poorly when he was born.  But Aderyn was good to him and to my mother, and saved him.  Every since then mother has loved Aderyn as though she were her sister.

As well, our slaves live with us.  There are three, two women to help mother and one man to help father.  Every morning, while the women get the morning meal ready, mother and I help Aderyn.  I take her to the privy and help her to wash.  Then mother and I dress her and comb her hair, and put on her necklaces and bracelets and shoes.  We make sure that she has a comfortable seat and then I feed her.  It is a difficult task, for I must be careful not to make her feel helpless and humiliated by having to be fed by her sister wife's child.  I try to find a place for her to sit away from the others, but not too far away so that she feels apart.  Though he is so very little, Arvel helps.  Aderyn has a special love for him and she likes it if he says he wants to help to give her her meal.

Sometimes I must care for Arvel, sometimes I help Blodeuyn with her baby.  Sometimes I sit with mother and sew or else listen while she tells me how to manage a home and husband.  But sometimes I can escape, thanks be to the Goddess, our Lady Rhiannon.  Ever since I was a child, I was blessed with the gift of divining dreams.  It all happened when I lost my kitten and prayed to Rhiannon to give me a dream, to tell me where he was.  She did, and I found my kitten safe and well.  I told my mother all about it and Aderyn, who was not ill then, said I should be taken to the holy woman, who lives a way out of our village.  I was so afraid, for we children had stories about that old lady.  Of how she caught and ate little children, boiling them in her pot with vegetables and fish.  But the lady only said that I had a gift and I must learn to use it.  From then on, I had to go to the old lady and spend whole days with her, to be taught how to interpret other people's dreams.  It is not an easy thing to do and sometimes I must sit quiet, on my own, and think and listen to the voice in my heart.  At those times I can easily escape the noise in the house of so many people.

Father and my older brothers want me to marry.  And I would, except that we cannot agree on who I should have as husband.  Aled has it in mind that I must marry our half cousin, who lives in the house of the clan chief.  He says it will bring much honour to the family if I would marry this man and he is slowly bringing father round to the idea too.  Aled thinks that this man is likely to be chosen as the next chief and he likes the thought that he would be brother of the chief's wife.  Aneirin is not so certain of that, but he would have me marry his dearest friend who is a fisherman like him.  But I have a third choice in mind.  He is Cai and he is my dearest love.  I have known him since we were small children and when we were still young, he said that he would marry me.  But his father died and his mother was poor and weak.  Her brother took her into his family, but then he sold Cai for a slave, for he would not raise his sister's child above his own.  Cai was bought by a good man, who saw that he loved music.  He made sure that Cai had teachers and now that he is a man grown, Cai has gone away to the house of a great lord, to learn to be a bard.  When he comes back, and he has promised me that he will come back, he will no longer be a slave, but a free man and the equal of my own family.  He will be able to look my father in the eye then, and ask for me to be his wife.  

Father is not happy about our plans, for Aled has been whispering in his ear and saying that I should marry a noble born, and not a noble made.  That Cai might fail, that he will fail, or else he will be captured or killed or a thousand things besides.  Mother is in sympathy with me and she can talk to Father, to persuade him to wait a while.  And then I have my duties to the Lady Rhiannon as well.  So if I am careful, and Aled is not too persuasive, I will still be free when Cai comes back home.  But for the meantime, I sit and sew and wait and pray.  And be glad that I have such a family.