«Lady Alyce!» Iris Rose cried. «Welcome back to Arc-en-Ciel! Is it true that you have brought us a new student? Oh, enter in Our Lady’s grace!» she added, suddenly remembering the formal words of welcome. «Mother Abbess will be with you shortly».
Alyce smiled as she ducked her head to ride through the abbey gate, Alazais following nervously behind her and Llion following with Alaric, at the beckoning gesture of Iris Cerys. The other women also entered, and Sir Walter with Duncan, but when the rest of the men made as if to stay outside, Iris Rose quickly motioned for them to enter as well.
«Reverend Mother has given her permission», she told Trevor, who clearly was in charge, at least of Alyce and her son. «We shall have to find overnight accommodation in the village for the men, but Sister Iris Jessilde has told us of the trouble you had on the way here, and has given good report of you. Please, please, enter. Your men may wait in the stable yard while we decide what to do».
Alyce, meanwhile, had drawn rein in the center of the courtyard before the chapel doors, where Iris Jessilde was accompanying Mother Iris Judiana down the chapel steps. Llion had dismounted and handed Alaric down to Xander, and came to hand Alyce down as well, going then to assist Alazais from her mount. Alyce took her son’s hand in hers and smoothed back the shock of white-blond hair before slipping her other arm through that of her stepdaughter. She was smiling as she led the pair of them before the abbess.
«Dearest daughter. Alyce», said Iris Judiana, opening her arms in welcome. «I see that you have come back to us a mother — and of a lovely boy!» she added, eyeing young Alaric in approval.
«And of a lovely stepdaughter», Alyce replied, as she came forward to kiss the abbess’ hand, and then allowed herself to be embraced. «This is Lord Kenneth’s daughter Alazais», she said, as Alazais gave a graceful curtsy, «and this is our son, Alaric».
«Both are very welcome», Iris Judiana said warmly. She gave Alazais her hand to kiss, then lightly touched a hand to Alaric’s fair head. «Iris Jessilde tells me that Lady Alazais wishes to be enrolled under the rainbow. If she is half the student as you and Lady Zoë, she will be a stunning asset to our student body».
Alazais gave another curtsy, blushing faintly.
«I have also been told of your distressing experience on the road from Cynfyn», Iris Judiana continued on a more sober note. «I shall wish to hear more of it, of course, but perhaps we should first see to the business that brought you here». She turned to Iris Cerys and Iris Jessilde. «Will you see to the robing of our newest student, Sisters? And I believe that Iris Rose has set in train the arrangements for overnight accommodation for your men. The other ladies, of course, will lodge here in the guest quarters. Perhaps Alyce will be so good as to present them to me».
There ensued a flurry of activity in which Alazais was whisked off to robe, Llion was dispatched to coordinate the arrangements for the men, and Alyce presented the ladies of the party.
«Mother, these are some of the remarkable women of my husband’s family», Alyce said as the women made their way to the foot of the chapel steps to kiss the abbess’ hand in turn. «This is my husband’s middle daughter, Geill, and these are his sisters, Delphine Morgan and Lady Claara Winslow, and his first wife’s sister, Lady Nesta McLain, who is also sister to the Duke of Cassan — and all of them are aunts to Alazais. And this is Countess Vera McLain, the wife of Lady Nesta’s nephew Jared, Duke Andrew’s heir — and their son, Duncan. All of them were good enough to travel all the way to Cynfyn for Zoë’s wedding, and to interrupt their journey home to share this special day with Alazais — though I must warn you that young Duncan and my Alaric together can be a handful».
«Another handsome boy», Iris Judiana said with a smile, ruffling Duncan’s hair. «You are, all of you, most welcome — and the gentlemen are welcome to attend the enrollment ceremony as well, if they wish — especially the two knights charged with the supervision of the children. Sir Llion and Sir Walter, is it?» she asked, glancing to Iris Cerys for confirmation. «Yes. I hope you will not be disappointed if our ceremonial seems a little ragged today. We had little time to prepare, as you know».
«We have all heard tell of the beauty of Notre Dame d’Arc-en-Ciel, Mother Abbess», said Lady Nesta, speaking for all of them. «And we are delighted to be present when Kenneth’s dear Alazais is received under the rainbow. I myself studied here, many years ago».
«Did you, indeed?» said Mother Judiana. «We must speak of that later, over supper. But for now, we shall gather in the chapel in an hour’s time, after you have been shown to your rooms and given opportunity to freshen yourselves somewhat from your journey».
Alyce soon discovered that presenting a new student was somewhat different from being one, or from being a student and watching others being received. After briefly repairing to the room assigned for her use — the same one she and Kenneth had shared on their wedding night, four years before, and shared this time with Vera and their respective sons — she left Alaric in Vera’s charge and went to the robing room, where Iris Cerys and Iris Jessilde had finished dressing Alazais in the school habit, the same sky-blue as worn by the sisters, but without the wimple and veil. As when Alyce and Marie had been received under the rainbow, what now seemed so long ago, the sisters had braided Alazais’s flaxen tresses in the single plait worn by all students of the house and set a wreath of flowers on her head: a quickly woven garland of late summer wildflowers rather than the wreath of roses Zoë had worn to her wedding or the dried winter wreaths Alyce and Marie had worn at their own reception.
«I’m afraid all the roses were too far blown to use», Iris Cerys said, looking up from the rainbow-woven cincture she was tying at Alazais’s waist. «But the wildflowers are nearly as pretty».
Iris Jessilde nodded her agreement as she shook out folds of the blue gown’s long skirt. The undergown worn in summer was of white linen rather than the white wool worn in winter. Alazais brushed her fingertips along the fall of pale blue sleeve and looked up shyly at her stepmother.
«How do I look?» she murmured.
«You look beautiful, darling», Alyce said, coming to give her a gentle hug — carefully, lest she crush the floral wreath.
Very soon they were following the two sisters along the cloister walk to the side door of the chapel, under its rainbow-painted arch and into the brilliance of the white marble chapel, where its rose windows cast broad swaths of rainbow-colored light across the interior.
A sweet song of welcome met their arrival — the Salve Regina, as Alyce now knew — its subtle harmonies and a breath of incense and honey-sweet beeswax candles enfolding them in peace as they trod the rainbow-striped carpet runner laid along the center aisle. Beyond the choir lay the high altar, ablaze with votive lights shielded with glass in all the colors of the rainbow. Before it, Mother Iris Judiana sat on a backless stool, flanked by two senior sisters.
Passing into the choir, between the ranks of center-facing choir stalls, they came at last to the foot of the altar steps, where Mother Iris Judiana had risen to receive them. She gave a graceful nod in response to the curtsies of the two younger women, then held out her arms in welcome to Alyce, who accepted her brief embrace and then stepped back to present the new arrival, as Lady Jessamy MacAthan had presented her and Marie so long ago.