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Yuletide.It was different for Gatty this year. For the first time in her life, her father was not blowing the pipe and banging the tabor, leading Slim into the hall, Slim raising the boar's head on a silver dish, while everyone sang:“Bring on the first dish of meat!A boar's head. That's what you'll eat.”No, Gatty's father was dead, and Arthur was far away, and in twelve days' time she herself would be leaving Caldicot.As usual, the priest Oliver treated everyone to a particularly lengthy sermon. He reminded his flock that their hearts were like cradles, waiting for Jesus to be born. “And if it's God's will,” he went on, “one of our flock, one of our own Calidcot flock, will reach the Golden Gate. She will stand inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the most holy place in holy Jerusalem.”Gatty listened, and she felt that Oliver wasn't really talking about her but about some stranger.“Let us pray for Gatty and her great pilgrimage,” Oliver said. “And if she reaches Jerusalem, may she pray for each one of us at each of the holy places.” On Saint Stephen's Day, Calidcot had visitors, Winnie de Verdon and her father, Sir Walter.They arrived early, in time to join the games, and when they stepped into the hall, the first thing Gatty noticed was Winnie's half of her and Arthur's betrothal penny, strung on a cord around her neck.The first thing Sian de Caldicot noticed, though, was Winnie's exquisite white fur mittens.