Now I’m eager to know what’s going through the minds of the both of them.

You are right about her not wanting to protect the baby from Radomir Lothere… that hadn’t come into her thinking… her reasoning was more along the lines of not giving him what he wanted since he can take pretty much everything anyway. Basically she has no way of fighting back against him… this was the only thing she could think to do.

And I have to say that Valeriya didn’t really think this through all that much. It wasn’t an entiredly planned out scenario. She had thought about it as a way to hurt Radomir, but didn’t really realise how far it would go and when she was having second thoughts it was really already too late. We will being seeing her opinion on it fairly soon so maybe she can redeem herself slightly. And she will be finding someone she can talk to very soon as well (but not Hepsie .

Oh yeah… no-one actually believes she fell. Everybody is being mostly medieval about it although I believe Eallair has had some words with Radomir about it. Also Valeriya is not sleeping in the same room as her husband anymore… they have found him another room.

The way she has handled the situation with the baby has been selfish from the beginning. It wasn’t the baby’s fault that it came to be. It wasn’t that she wanted to protect the baby from its father — as I recall she simply didn’t like the idea of her husband getting access to her womb.

At least she didn’t laugh or smile when Hepsie told her she had lost her baby. I was expecting something like that. She seems to have drifted off into her own world, doesn’t she?

In fact, now that I think about, my like for Valeriya has always been based to a large extent on pity. She’s such a shadow of a woman that she hasn’t done much to make herself likeable for her own sake. Though from what Radomir told us, she wasn’t always that way.

And “they” told Hepsie that Valeriya fell? Wha? Like ten times? Down a cliff? Does everyone else believe the story? Is some man not going to do what Hepsie wished she could? Or are all those men being medieval about it, or what?

Meanwhile, I love Hepsie too! Even her name — it’s just perfect for her. It’s a shame Valeriya couldn’t bring herself to talk to her. It might have done her some good.

First of all… welcome to Mhalwae Sarah (and the present day cause I guess you have been silently reading your way through the rest of the posts). Another baby-rescuer . As I said to Tiana I hope you won’t get too upset with how mean I am to the babies of Mhalwae. I love your solution to Valeriya’s problem… I think Eallair wouldn’t know what to say if you came up to him and told him the family needed to address its domestic violence issues… he has enough trouble as it is .

I love Hepsie too Aithne She’s my favourite (although to be honest I really love all my characters… well not Radomir… but I am starting to like him more now he is getting a Soamesy feel to him. Has anyone else read or watched the Forsyte Saga… it is seriously awesome and Soames is one of my favourite characters in literature (along with Lizzy and Mr Darcy from Pride and prejudice). I love Soames because he is so complex… you hate him one minute, you cry with him the next, then you disapprove, then you admire. I don’t think I can hope for Radomir to be nearly as wonderful as him but we’ll see… he’s growing on me.

I”l look forward to your next update

See ya