Bragi could be profoundly naive; and not just because he was a product of his time. He'd seen a motorcar in London and his instinct had been to assume it moved by magic. He believed in his heart that the noble knights of fairytales still existed. And he was quite sure he didn't know how children were made. And thus it was perhaps inevitable, albeit unusual, that the sweet fellow should come to two conclusions about the anger and confusion of the evening.

As he watched with quiet admiration and relief as "Ari" cured his grazes in a manner that reminded Bragi of when he'd fallen off a horse at aged ten, he had a moment of calm to contemplate these two conclusions. The first was that the source of Mr Sterling's anger had been the trespass, and its inadvertent effect on interrupting his private moment. The second conclusion was that these two men were married.

This was, at long last, obvious to Bragi Holm, who was an obedient and lawful boy, unquestioning of the rules. He knew it was improper to display such affection (even privately) unless married. Bragi was prone to idolisation; Mr Sterling was strictly a proper gentleman, and thus he must be married. But Bragi had never heard any rules, nor even mention, about which gender could marry which. Sometimes he heard disapproving mutterings about people marrying above or below their station, or into an inappropriate family, and he knew such things were very important; but at no point had anyone stated that he must marry her. Gender seemed entirely irrelevant. How odd that he hadn't noticed this before!

But now that he had, and he'd witnessed the very rare existence of two married men, he felt something tantamount to tremendous relief start to fill his heart. Like cool water on a burn. The air in the barn suddenly felt fresh and cool and touched with wild lavender.

And the future suddenly seemed very, very interesting. But he daren't approach the thought of it.

"Thank you", he said again to the taller of the three, grateful as the discomfort of his hands began to ebb. Now that Bragi had finally had his eureka moment in among all of this, his tone was noticeably back to its old self, light and curious. Albeit still a little wary. "Oh — I'm sorry if I seemed alarmed, sir", he replied to Mr Sterling. "I suppose I was, a little. But it's only because I did not realise you're married!" He gave a slight, timid smile.