The key unlocks a small lounge with armchairs, a changing table, a refrigerator, an enormous stock of diapers in what seems like hundreds of brands. (One particular brand seems designed for infants with multiple tentacles.) Bran, his arms fully occupied by a fussing Owen Arthur, lets Will open the door for him ( Read more... )

"A very old custom, you see," Bran explains, as he drives Will down the dark roads towards Tywyn, "all the men singing in Christmas morning. Twenty years ago, or thereabouts, the tradition was beginning to fade, and there were not enough people in all the churches and the chapels. So the churches came together, and everyone began meeting at St ( Read more... )

After morning prayers (in which half the family went to the Methodist chapel, slightly under half to the Presbyterian chapel, and a few to St Cadfan's in Tywyn), the Davies family and friends have assembled at Emrys's home for Christmas dinner ( Read more... )

Bran collected Jane at the Tywyn station a few hours ago, just before dinner. Afterwards, Bran, Cordelia, Jane and Margaret are holding pleasant, quiet conversations in the parlor and waiting for Will to arrive in his rented car.

The house in the hills is full of noise and light and people; three generations of the Davies family, with Will and Jane and Cordelia, not to mention the tree standing in the parlor, are more than enough to crowd Bran's comfortable home. It is a happy crowd, in any case. Children are everywhere, chattering peacefully, and adults are making small ( Read more... )

Bran Davies was not expecting to come to Milliways today, but it is as good a place to study organic chemistry as any. He is sitting in one of the quieter booths, reading a textbook and taking notes in two languages in a black-and-white notebook.

After Bran hangs up the phone, he puts the kettle on. Cordelia and Margaret, he expects, will be downstairs presently.

In the event, Margaret decides she would rather go to sleep early.

While Margaret takes Cordelia upstairs, to see to her room, Bran makes a phone call from the kitchen ( Read more... )

( Months pass )

( Bran comes home )