Helene had learned her lesson well. If you don't choose one, you will be chosen by someone else and it may not be the one you hoped for.

Dionysus had turned all the money he had saved all the years living at the stable at two golden pounds. He went daily at the coffee shop at Helene's village and he was playing with them throwing them on air and catching them on their way down. When he was close enough to her house, he was throwing them too high and he pretended that he didn't care to catch them on their way down fooling everyone that was too rich to care. The trick was that he has talked in advance with a young boy who was lurking to catch them for him and give them back to him on his way to the stable.

The rumors established that he was a wealthy man so it came as no surprise when the matchmaker showed up at Helene's house asking for her. According to the tradition got out and offered Dionysus and the matchmaker coffee and local preserves and went back to the cuisine. Her mother, her father and each one of her brothers asked her in private if she agreed to that marriage. She was asked six times and if she said "no" once that would be enough to kick them out of the house. Women weren't asked at that time for their opinion but Helene didn't come from an ordinary family.

Each question was waiting for her answer and each time she was too scared to say that she already had a crush for fear that her family would think of her as a dishonorable woman. She never forgave herself for her silence.

"I was asked six times and six times I remained silent. One would have been enough and my life would have been completely different."

She was so nervous that she didn't even realize who the groom was. She thought that the groom was Phillipe, Dionysus' brother who was still a bachelor who left much to be desired, only to found out after her family had accepted the arranged marriage that her future would be Dionysus' eldest son, Ray. She despised him and no one could ever tell if they ever manage to go beyond than mutual tolerance; at least whenever they didn't publicly despise each other.

Ray never forgave her for giving birth to five daughters. He was so furious with her that he refused to return home each time he learned that she had learned that Helene gave birth to one more baby girl.

Shortly after the fifth one was born that her elder brother decided to go the witch and ask her to undo the spell. Penelope had asked her for one more curse. The curse was to give birth to nine girls; the ultimate humiliation for a woman who couldn't give birth to a male heir.

She had showed up the wedding chewing nine seeds of lentil and she kept in to her mouth while she was wishing the married couple a happy life and many offsprings as instructed by the witch. Helene's brother paid the price the witch asked and Helene stop giving birth to children. She never had a son but she hadn't any more girls. On the contrary a few years later one of the girls died and Helene was left with four.

Ray never let her forget of her incapacity to give birth to boys while her sister Felicia gave birth to three boys. A neighbor tried to solve the problem by suggesting that the sister exchanged their youngest children which were born close to each other. Helene would have a boy at last and Felicia would have a daughter to take care of her at her old age. Both kids would be in the same family so there would be no fear of incest and each mother would be close to her birth child. Neither Felicia not Helene agreed to that.

Felicia lost her husband a few years after giving birth to her youngest son. He was the best craftsman up to the day he was told to knock down an old church and build a new one. The moment he hit the church with the pickax, he fell on the ground with spasms and died a few months later. Churches were built upon older temples and even though none knew anything about the old temple's origins, it was common knowledge that spirits where protected the area and brutally punished anyone who tried to defy their territory. Felicia's husband was just one name in a long list throughout time. He wasn't the first and he wasn't the last one since people tend to forget the lessons that they were taught.