Chapter 24 Summary

At the holding, Birle sits in the sun. Soon she will put on the servant's clothes brought from the castle. She will arrange her hair. Not in the long tresses of a Lady, or the twin braids of the innkeeper's daughter, but in the single thick braid she devised for herself as a slave. Before she has started, a woman comes up the path. It is Nan. She is delighted to see Birle, calling her "daughter." Nan asks where the man is for the holding, and Birle tartly asks why every holding has to have a man.

Nan fusses about all the work to be done in the house, with Birle just sitting in the sun. Birle plants an herb garden to make ointments and diffusions. When the baby comes shortly after the spring fair, Nan helps Birle. The baby is a girl...