Gunnilda is 36, but even at 40 I suspect women still have those kind of desires, young sir.

Actually I was thinking that the smith himself would try flirting with Gunnilda, and Gunnilda would totally shoot him down, so the idea is not incompatible. Gunnilda has only ever seemed to have lustful thoughts for Egelric, and even those have been little more than vague suspicions that it would somehow be different with him. I would be surprised if she felt attracted to someone else, unless he resembled Egelric in such a way that he pushed all the right buttons. Fergus, say.

(Don't worry though... not only would that be sort of creepy, falling in love with the cloned, angel-inhabited body of the still-born son of the man you couldn't have, but I already have quite detailed plans for Fergus, and it's a little late for me to turn back now.)

But that may be taking us far from Penelope's original idea of one of the local womanizers (manizers?) meeting his match. Since the silversmith would be a man, he wouldn't pose much threat to Leofric, Egelric, or anyone else. We haven't really had any incurable flirts or serial sleep-arounders among the women. The worst was probably HIlda, flirting with her father-in-law and looking for her Real Man. Anna was quite a tease, but I already have plans for her, in a year or two.

The idea of Lady Eadgith having a torrid, bodice-ripping affair with the local young, shirtless ripply-muscled guy is perhaps the most conventionally interesting. That would certainly serve Leofric right. I have a hard time imagining it though. Maybe we will see how she's doing in an upcoming chapter, but she's haughty enough that she probably wouldn't seriously consider sleeping with a peasant. And don't forget... she's married to Leofric. She and Leila seem to agree: once you've had Leof, ordinary men lose some of their charm.