Chapter 19

Living in the yew wood with their infant son, Una struggles with gentleness while Owen learns caretaking, haunted by memories of his father. They balance roles: Owen soothes at night; Una hunts by day, both guarding their fragile peace.

A crofter’s son arrives in near-dark with news of raiders. Owen fears exposure; Una feels honor stir and goes to the yew to reclaim Valiance. She imagines saving the farm but foresees the queen tracing the drawn sword to them. Knuckle by knuckle, Una releases the hilt and returns to refuse the plea, choosing her family’s safety over heroism.

In the aftermath, Una tends their fussing baby, and Owen recognizes that he has asked another death of Una Everlasting. The book lies dusty on a high shelf as the seasons order themselves. Their son learns first words; Owen stifles tales and longing for scholarship; Una answers only to mother, wife, beloved.

Time turns; a daughter is born in spring. The children grow without kin or lineage beyond the wood. Owen and Una reshape themselves—pen and sword set aside—as they share small joys: berries, flowers, and stolen summer evenings, even as Owen recalls the blood they left behind and the lives they did not save.

Just as Owen begins to believe in a lasting peace, boots crack branches nearby. A voice from a future age says, “Hello, Corporal.” The nine-year idyll ends; their hidden life has been discovered, and the past they fled has come calling.