Kannak could not have been happier. Andrina was full of gossip and while the younger girls went off to gather heather to mix with the river clay her mother went to fetch, the older girls began to fill baskets with rocks.
"He be handsome enough, I suppose," said Kannak. "But Stefan grows more awkward by the moment. Mother says he be growing and all boys become ungainly when they dinna realize their size."
"'Tis true, my brothers are the same."
"When do they grow out o' it? I sometimes fear Stefan will trample me."
"When they stop growing. Awkward or not, Stefan be almost as handsome as…"
Kannak put a rock in her basket and then tested the weight to see if it was getting too heavy. "As who?"
"I best not say."
"Why not? I would not tell even if I had other friends."
"Do ye pledge it?"
"Of course." She added two more rocks and decided it was heavy enough.
Andrina leaned a little closer. "William be the most princely lad I have ever seen."
"William? The William who lives just east o' us?" She waited for Andrina to lift her basket and together they carried them back to where Jirvel was digging a hole in which to mix the clay with water. Already the younger girls had gathered a full basket of heather to mix in the mortar. They dumped the rocks in a pile and went back.
"Do ye know him, William I mean?" asked Andrina.
"Not well, but I have seen him often. He seems pleasant enough."
"I think so too. I have not yet had occasion to talk with him much. Come to think o' it, I have not talked to him at all."
"Why not?"
"I dinna know precisely. It would help if he was our direct neighbor, but ye live between us, ye see. I did catch him looking at me during the festival, but he did not approach." Andrina tossed several more rocks in her basket and then stood up to stretch her back.
"Is that how it be done? The lad approaches the lass he hopes to marry?"
"How else is he to know if she has a soft enough voice or if she smells. A lad does not like a lass who smells, ye know."
Kannak had never thought of that reason to keep clean and decided she would take more care of her personal grooming in the future, just in case Jirvel ever let her marry, which she doubted would be any time soon…if ever. "What do they talk about when a lad approaches?"
Andrina giggled. "I have only been approached once. It was Friseal and he asked if I was a good cook. I did not like him, so I shook my head and he went away. My father glared at me for the rest o' the day."