midsummer means boinking in the great outdoors

He sits on a bench watching the circle of dancers, working his way through cups of mead and hoping no one asks him to dance. And then someone does – Felise, her pregnancy just barely starting to show, pulls him to his feet and into the circle, where she tries to teach him the steps and laughs when he stumbles. But he laughs with her and doesn't mind.

She passes him on to Jaufre, of all people, and then Helis, the woman who was leading the services when Rainaut first brought him to the community. Brother Peire can only handle one pass around the circle before he begs off, too unsteady on his feet to try and dance to unfamiliar music with unfamiliar steps.

But he's enjoying himself, something he attributes to the general festival feeling and the newfound peace he's made with his circumstances. The fact that he's had what for him is a lot of mead, and that at some point in the near future he'll go off with Rainaut to laugh and touch and moan, and that he's proud of his work in the copy room, might also be contributing factors.

( As if Brother Peire's thoughts have conjured him )

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