When Fial was offered Tregay as her home it was in a rundown state. Not derelict, but needing to be aired and decorated and some remedial repairs made, and with the mature garden requiring to be pushed back within the bounds the previous inhabitants had probably wished it to be contained within.
The cottage had been left to her in Taru’s leaving-will; or, at least, a lifetime’s interest. The leaving-will did not have any particular legal validity, but as it was accepted Taru would not return and its provisions were considered reasonable, it was allowed to stand. The various properties throughout the valley tied to the House and the Overlordship were left to be administered by the Temple Compound in An Uaimh, except for these in Glacanto; these – together with Nédath-ö-Orestol – were to be run by the remaining triumvirs for the benefit of that realm. Exactly who owned them was, for the moment, left somewhat vague: things would after all change with a new, permanent Sacred King. Fial was told all this, but did not take it in, still being pregnant – even the bit about Tregay. It was a couple of moons after Finbar’s birth before she was in a condition to consider any future beyond the walls of her old nanny’s home.
And it was indeed nearly two years before she finally felt strong and independent enough to take up residence. In the intervening time Nessa and Melior arranged for the basics to be put right: it was scrubbed and painted and air allowed in. Basic furniture was procured, and curtains hung and rugs spread. The shrubs and fruit trees in the garden were given rejuvenating prunes, the hedge was trimmed and the ditch cleared, and the lawn cut and re-sown. The seasons it took for Fial to be ready to occupy the House allowed for the bareness and crude framework that had been exposed to be covered by fresh growth and a controlled lushness to return. So the backbone of the garden was close to returning to its former beauty, but there was still plenty to do, when she moved in on a bright, though cool, spring day when Finbar was a few moons shy of his second birthday.
It was hard, being alone with Finbar for the first time really since his birth, for neither her nanny nor the wise-women would stay that first night, saying that it would be better to get used to none of them being around as soon as possible after all her prevaricating. Yet after Finbar was put to bed Fial sat by the kitchen window and cried all evening, only remembering her losses. But when she woke the following morning she felt able to get down to making the cottage a home. And, anyway, Finbar was not prepared to wait to be changed and to have his breakfast while she reflected; he was eager to continue the exploring he had begun the previous day, especially hunting for any mammals or bugs he could share his new home with.
She could not help but see the joy in the world when he was running and laughing and singing along all the ways inside the enclosure. Unsteady still at times, and his songs mostly wordless, but a joy undoubtedly unbridled.
So Fial set about making their home, unpacking the chattels she had collect and brought with her: some gifts from Melior or Nessa or Tegen; some she had bought over the past couple of years or so when pressed as to what she would need; and, lastly, the contents of two trunks brought from her father’s palace on Porthcarno. These were mostly her books and a few mementoes – including the little box containing her sapphire-set ring and her mother’s chain, for she rarely wore any jewellery – as well as clothes and toys Finbar would grow into. Not that much really from such a rich childhood.
There were also a few pieces of furniture, particularly her childhood bed that Finbar had slept in last night, and the bookcase from her teenage years – heavy and ornate and inherited from her grandmother. Otherwise, she had what they required to start their new home; whatever else they needed she could get as she went along.
Tegen came by in the mid-morning, and Fial was pleased at the opportunity for a break. Finbar came to sit with them, and chattered almost unceasingly about the delights he was uncovering, and citing all the places where he was falling over, and the places that were now his.
