Hideaway Strath we'll cut them a smile each

Lotte watched with rapt attention as her ferocious little firstborn bounded into the clearing with the silent snowdrop in tow. “Come here to me, Mallaidh, Eirlys,” she says when the smoke-and-shadow child stops halfway and her shyer sister bumbles into her rump. “My fierce girl and my sweet flower! We are going on an adventure today — right, papa?” She turned to look at @Arturo with mischief glinting in her moonbright eyes. “You do not want the boys to beat us there, do you?” She uttered this in a stage whisper. Lotte had been encouraged to compete with her brothers; female against male contests were a huge part of her upbringing. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to do the same for her own children, but it was all she knew. Females, Lotte felt, were as strong as — if not stronger than — their male counterparts.