Chapter 23 - 1300
The last day of the year, the eve of Saint Basil’s feast day, was chilly and bracing, full of excitement and commotion. Everyone in the Provence casale was invited to the New Year’s Eve feast. There would be singing and dancing and plenty to eat and drink. No one would go to bed hungry tonight. It took two men to carry the boar that Provence had shot with an arrow that forenoon.
Gathered around the crackling fire, serfs took turns praying to Saint Basil to tell them if the one they loved also loved them back. They cut a slit in the middle of an olive tree leaf and placed another leaf in it, forming a cross and tossing it into the fire. If it leaped, their love was reciprocated. If it burned, alas, it was not!
Lois waited anxiously for her turn, but Emilia said she need
