"Yes, Yes, of course." The baron smiled indulgently at the two ladies, "But I wonder, child, why did you wait so long to return to me? Did you fear that you would not be welcome? That I might turn you away? You must know that I swore an oath to Lord Erec..."

"It was not at all like that, milord. After the...grave...John—Sir John" Gwyn amended with a smile, "Well, he thought it would be best if we disappeared for a little while. He feared the men might seek further to harm Lord Erec's family. We have been hiding, living simply as ordinary peasants from that time to this. Sir John at last deemed it safe and brought us at once to you."

"It is well. You shall continue as her champion, then." The baron nodded toward John who stood a few steps behind Gwyn. "I shall see that you have the room directly across from her and the children so that you may always be near to them."

"That would please me very much." Gwyn smiled.

With that, the Lady Alexandi led her away and the children followed. Gwyn was very proud of them. Despite their happiness to be back and their wish to go to their rooms and see all of their treasures again, they held hands and stood quietly in front of John.

It probably helped that he held a reminding hand gently upon each of their shoulders...

---

The children settled back into their old life, carefree and happy as they played among the halls of the castle. Gwyn resumed her healing practice with the notable exception that John stood watch inside the door of the healer's rooms and followed a few steps behind wherever Gwyn went.

As Gwyn had hoped, her arrival at the Hall was enough to set the people to talking of Erec again. The whispers reached Matilde and she shared them with Gwyn. The Lady Gwyn was so very brave to carry on after her beloved was taken from her so soon. The Lady Gwyn was a saint for turning her hands to the care of others when her heart must surely mourn...

But her favorite was that bets were being taken of whether or not there would be a wee bairn soon. And of course, the bairn could not be Lord Erec's as he had been dead far too long and so surely it must be Sir John's since the man was never more that a few steps from Lady Gwyn's side. That set off a new round of bets as to when the wedding would be.

Gwyn shook her head as Sofi entered with a basket. She brought the clean bandages in from the line and sighed as she set the basket down. Sofi looked longingly at the sunshine pouring in through the open door and sighed again as she reached for a bandage and began to roll it.

"Go on then." Gwyn smiled. "John can help me with this."

Sofi blinked up at her.

"Off with you, before I change my mind." Gwyn chuckled at the speed with which the child vacated the room.

"I guess I am to help roll bandages." John smiled as he stood from his chair by the door.

"No. I should be done before very long. I did not wish Sofi to feel badly for leaving. She has a very tender heart."

"I heard her crying last night." John said as he looked out the doorway at Sofi playing with one of the Castle dogs. "She heard some of the children talking about how her pa was kilt and she worried he was really dead."

"Oh, the poor child. I wonder that I did not hear her. I—"

"Worry not. I heard her and was at her side almost at once. She curled up on my lap and told me the whole story. I promised her that they were mistaken, that Lord Erec would soon return and then she could see for herself."

"Do you think that wise? To say that he would return?"

John smiled.

"Out of the mouth of babes. Her unshakable faith that her father will return will be known to everyone within the Hall all the faster for the children talking. And then when he does return..."

"I never thought that I should encourage superstitions, but..."

"Aye. This is our only chance. Our numbers are too few to hold Brecken with the troops we have. This idea of yours will be the miracle that we need to save our kingdom."

"It is not my miracle."

"It was your idea, milady." John said, "And that is not a point you can dispute with any verity."

Gwyn shrugged as she set aside the bandage roll and reached for another from the basket. John took the dismissal in stride and turned to look out of doors. Though he never left her side, he also kept close tabs on the children; a fact for which Gwyn was grateful.

---

"Tis going to rain." Matilde said as she stood with Gwyn, tying up herbs in bundles to make ready for drying. "Mark my words."

"Surely not." Gwyn argued, "There is not a cloud in the sky. Sooth, there has not been a cloud for a sennight, at least."

Gwyn was growing anxious. The time was drawing near. The moon would be full in a few days and Erec would be here with her again.

"I feel it in my bones." Matilde nodded, "And I am never wrong."

Gwyn arched her eyebrow. Matilde chuckled.

"Not about this. I am never wrong about rain."

"As you say." Gwyn laughed.

---

Gwyn sat up with a start as the crack of lightening was followed by the boom of thunder. Rising she crossed to the window and leaned out. Only that afternoon Matilde predicted rain...

"Erec." She whispered into the storm.

She worried that this would ruin their plan. She imagined him riding in through the mist with the glow of the sunrise on the sanguine of their banner and surcoats. Now...

A soft knock sounded at the door. Picking up one of the furs, she wrapped it around her shoulders and crossed to the door.

"John?" she whispered, "Is all well?"

"Aye. The children are sound asleep. I just came from checking on them. But I knew you would be awakened as was I."

"Aye. John, do you think this will ruin everything?"

"I wondered that. But then I remembered something."

"Please?" she pleaded waving him in and closing the door. "What have you recalled that would help us."

"Do you recall the day that Hugh the Great died?"

"No. I was on my father's farm, north of Kingspass. It was weeks after he died before I heard news."

"I do. I was there. That is to say, I was in Kingstown. There was a storm. A storm unlike any in my memory from that time to this. Come." He led her to the window and gestured for her to look.

Gwyn's breath caught.

In contrast with the darkness of her room, lit only by the barely glowing embers in the hearth and John's one candle, the sky glowed brightly. The sky seemed painted, mottled with inky clouds that moved fluidly like a drop of ink in a glass of water. They swirled and moved changing so oft that they never seemed to take shape.

It was magical and contrasted sharply with the solid unchanging black of the land outlined against the horizon.

"Look at the moon, milady."

Obeying, she turned her attention to moon. It was enormous! And it was so much brighter than she ever remembered a full moon...even one on a clear night. This one was unusual in yet another way. Magical was insufficient. Enchanting. Bewitching.

Good or Evil she could not say as she stared in amazement, a bolt of lightening cut through the sky followed by another and another. Each attended by a boom that resonated in her bones. She imagined for a moment she felt the tremor of it in the cold stones beneath her hand as she leaned to look out at the incredible storm.

"Did you see the halo?"

"Halo?" Looking once again to the moon, she stared until her eyes became accustomed to the eerie glow and the flash of the lightening. Slowly she began to see that there was a circle around the moon that glowed brighter than the rest of the sky, and it was a little bluer than the rest of the light. And at the edges of that the blue turned...

It cannot be!

"It is red, is it not, like blood smeared on the clouds."

"It is...what—" She swallowed. "What does it mean? Have you ever seen it before?"

"Oh, Aye. I have seen many halos around the moon. It is said that it portends rain or snow. And since it is storming rather violently, I would say that they are correct to say so."

Gwyn nodded, as she could not find her voice, nor take her eyes from the sight before her.

"There has not been a storm like this since Hugh the Great died. People will remember the tales that spread with word of his death. It grew more and more violent as his death drew near and seemed to crescendo right as he drew his last breath. Erec said the storm ended of a sudden and it was mere moments later that he was summoned by the new king."

"And the red?"

"I have seen it a few times before. It was unsettling to see the giant moon ringed in red—as if it were bleeding. I am certain there was not a soldier alive who saw it that did not tremble inside."

"With this storm, and especially the red, people will be looking for what this portends and it will only strengthen their superstitions when Erec appears from the mists. Is it blasphemous to pray that those superstitious soldiers in Far North believe this an omen?"

"I do not think God would fault you for praying for deliverance from your enemies. God used a flaming cloud to protect his people when he delivered them from Pharoah at the Red Sea. Why should he not now use a flaming moon in a clouded sky to deliver us from King Axel and his armies?"

A gust of wind blew just then and the cold rain pricked her skin like small icy pins. Gwyn yelped and stepped back as John rushed to force the shutters closed. When it was done, the wind battered them, rattling them against the bar. Gwyn shivered.

"Was it like this?"

"When Hugh the Great died? Aye." John shook himself as he recalled. "The rain came down almost sideways and it was so heavy that I could scarce see my hand in front of me. I was on watch duty that night.

"Anything not tied down was blown away and twice I was almost struck by flying branches. When the storm was passed and the morning came, chaos and destruction were everywhere."

"Oh my."

"It was a powerful storm and this one is going to put people in mind of that. Mark my words. This will magnify the effect of his entrance to the point that we may win this battle without ever loosing a single arrow."

"From your lips to God's ears!"

---

Gwyn kept the children close the following day and stayed with Lady Alexandi in her rooms. It was as John predicted. The entire castle and the villages around were buzzing with talk of the storm and the bleeding moon. Gwyn and Lady Alexandi sat cossetted away in an inside room with no windows. A cozy fire was blazing in the hearth. Candlelight gave the room a warm glow.

The children seemed none the worse for the storm. Indeed, John slept in their room in case they should awaken, but reported in the morning that they never even flinched. Gwyn wished she could say the same.

She was not superstitious as a rule, but she could not help but think on all that John had said about the other storm. Especially after she awoke exhausted and chilled. She opened the shutters and found the neat courtyard was a study in chaos. People were already moving about, trying to right the storm damage. It was much as John had described.

Gwyn shuddered at the memory.

"Are you cold, dear?" Alexandi asked.

"Nay. It was just...Nay. I am well."

"I am growing hungry also and think I should like to have some bread and fruit brought to break my fast. Would that suit you, also?"

"Thank you." Gwyn nodded and sighed. One more night and Erec would be with her again.

I miss him so much.

"Of course, you do, dear." Alexandi said softly.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You just said you missed him and I could only assume that you meant Lord Erec. And then I said that of course you do, miss him that is."

"Oh." Gwyn blushed. She had not meant to speak that out loud.

"Do not be sad, Mama." Sofi appeared before her and patted her hand. "Papa will be back soon and then everything will be alright. You shall see."

"Of course, darling." Gwyn smiled. In this also, John was correct. Sofi's confidence in her papa's return was common knowledge to all at Brecken Moors Hall. Erec's return in the wake of such a storm as they had last night, and the appearance of the strange bleeding moon would send tremors through the bones of even the most stalwart of men.

Especially among those living in the castle where little Sofi told anyone who would listen that her papa would come back soon and then everything would be alright again.

---

The wind picked up and the night air suddenly became cold. Drew pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulder as he huddled closer to the tree they sheltered under. They dared not risk a fire, lest they be seen before the appointed time.

"I do not like this weather." Drew grumbled. "It should not be so cold this time of the year."

Erec rubbed his leg where the arrow had pinned him to the ground.

"I am not so fond of it either. It bodes ill."

"Do you say then,that we should go early? Before the fullmoon?"