Brever demures

Brever had been in the service of Castleford-on-Rim since childhood, as had been his father before him, and his father too.....so his roots ran deep in the village, and in the County....he was long since married, and had seven children, and a first grand-child on the way.....he did not want to leave all this and go with the Lord Baron on this insane expedition to the far ends of the known world, or even beyond!  But who could he get to take his place....who would the Baron accept?  He sat in the tavern and told his doubts and fears to his cousin Herat, a great bear of a man, but somehow always discreet and gentle, despite his rough and powerful appearance....Herat drank in his cousin's tale of a great adventure across the Western Sea with relish.....what excitement!  And Brever did not wish to go?  Well, he did have the wife and little ones and all....though they were not all so little by this year....but he could understand Brever's trepidation in the face of the unknown.....not everyone who went West returned East, after all....But, would the Baron take him across the sea, in place of his cousin?  What a dream.....Well, sometimes, a dream might come true......