Let me give you some ideas!! Uh, chronologically?

• 5 Oct. 1071 - "Gunnilda goes to Egelric" ...just after Elfleda hanged herself. We had already seen some tender scenes with those two by this time, but that's the one where Egelric manages to lift himself out of his anguish and say these quotable lines:
  

  “Whenever I have most despaired,” he said without looking up, “I have always found you standing behind me, in body or in spirit.  If I believe in curses, I have also sometimes believed that you were sent to save me.”

  I also like Gunnilda's observation in there:

  She had seen him distraught, seen him perhaps as no one else had seen him...  And each time it seemed as if pieces of him were falling away.

  I hadn't realized I had written that so long ago, but it really sets us up for the evolution of Egelric's character over the years.

  Also, Egelric's:

  "I had to say it, because in a few hours I will again be the angry and bitter man who hates you for being good, and I will not be able to say it.  I wanted you to know that’s not all I am.  Remember this when I hurt you."

  He should remind himself of that sometimes.

• Mar. 1072 - "Egelric has a late visitor" ...when Gunnilda shows up in the middle of the night and the middle of the rain to say a proper goodbye just before Egelric goes off to war.

  I think it's my favorite Egelric + Gunnilda chapter. She's silly and sweet, and he's growly and gentle, and they hold each other, and I think it's the closest they ever come to admitting their feelings. I think they do, implicitly. Egelric tells her, "You know I can’t promise you anything," and they both know what he means.

  It's also the night that Gunnilda makes off with his old plaid cloak, which she still keeps on a peg to this day, even though I think I am the only person who has noticed that detail. It's one of the sweetest, most memorable things to me.

• 4 Feb. 1073 - "Egelric goes to say goodbye" ...to a dying Alred. Alred tells him to take care of Matilda, the person he loves most on earth, and he calls him his brother. I think he wanted Egelric to know how much he loved him, and make him understand that the difference in their classes mattered not at all, since Egelric was always sort of shy about that. Very sweet.
• Mar. 1074 - "Matilda sends for Alred" ...just before Margaret is born.
  

  “Alred,” she said a few moments later as she relaxed into a dreamy smile, “do you remember all of those poems you wrote for me when you came back from Wales with Sigefrith and Harold and met me for the first time?”

  “Do I?  I remember my poetry was what caused you to break your oath never to laugh again!  How dreadful it must have been!”

  “Oh, no,” she murmured.  “I was so proud and so flattered, though I could never tell you so.  And I copied them all down into the blank spaces in my old Psalter that I had from my mother—such a naughty girl I was, writing in my books!  But I said to myself: here is my own Song of Songs.  You never knew that, did you?” she smiled.  “I never let you see that book.  I don’t know why.  Perhaps it was wrong.  It must seem as if I didn’t want you to know how I loved you.  Ah, I see I did make you cry, you ass.”

  Need I say more?

• 7 Apr. 1074 - "Gunnilda gets a surprise" ...when Alwy takes her to see her new house. His love for her is so beautiful in that chapter.
  

  “Well, I don’t know, I guess I’m still just old Alwy Hogge.  But I bet when you was sixteen and got married to old Alwy Hogge, you never thought he would give you a house like this someday!” he laughed.

  “No, I guess I never did,” she admitted.  Suddenly she was moved to kiss his sunburnt cheek, which only caused him to chuckle again.  “Don’t you laugh, ‘old Alwy Hogge,’” she said, regaining her spirits.  “I guess you never thought you would give a me house like this someday, neither!”

  “No,” he said, pulling her close and mumbling shyly into her neck. “No—but I wanted to.”

• 21 Jul. 1075 - "Alwy finds Iylaine in the tower room" ...and talks to her about being bullied. More Alwy sweetness at its best.
• 24 Jun. 1077 - "Sigefrith takes Eadgith home" ...and asks her to marry him along the way. It's sometimes hard to remember Sigefrith can be romantic too, in his unromantic way. I can just imagine young Eadie's feelings in this chapter... this magnificent, lordly man whom she just happens to have a massive crush on modestly confessing his love for her. A fairy tale fit for Gwynn. *sigh*
• 23 Jun. 1078 - "Egelric hurts" ...because he is falling in love with Sela. My favorite chapter with these two, because it's so good to see Egelric laughing and joking and being happy for a moment. It isn't really tender, and it isn't really sweet, but it's poignant because you realize how much he's been hurting when you see how much it hurts him to be happy.
• 21 May 1079 - "Matilda comes to Leofric" I know not many of you are with me on this one, but I loved this romance, especially from Leofric's point of view. Matilda was sort of using him, while he really loved her.
  

  He took her in his arms.  This was why his living self had lived.  Her head barely came up to his chin.  He stroked back her dark hair and pressed her face against his chest, against the old triangular scar.  The Norman arrow had not quite pierced his heart, but her little, pointed chin—quite! quite!

  Poor Leof, really.

• 19 Jan. 1080 - "Dunstan copies two letters and reply" No list of sweetest, tenderest, most moving chapters can fail to include this one! Dunstan writing his "I love you" letter to his mother in all the languages he knows... Alred with no voice from so much sobbing telling Dunstan to write in the big journal himself... Leofric's little "slashed" reply upon learning of Matilda's death, offering up "Peleia" as a name, meaning "Dove"...
• 12 Aug. 1080 - "Murchad is offered a towel" ...a head-drying towel, that is! Those two were so sweet in this chapter.
• 14 Oct. 1080 - "Iylaine looks up and sees" ...that Vash isn't a boy any longer? What she does not quite realize yet is that she is no longer a little girl. This is one of my favorite Vash & Iylaine chapters... it seems like the point where the sexual tension starts going both ways. Sad and sweet -- so much longing, so many things they're both afraid to admit.
• 24 May 1081 - "Iylaine finds the water wet" Malcolm & Iylaine's first successful kiss, after that flop last summer! It's so sweet from Malcolm's POV... thinking what a stupid, crazy girl she is, and next thing he knows she's kissing him passionately. Chapters like this made me love Malcolm a little too much.
• 14 Sep. 1081 - "Synne goes up with her dearest friend" - More Synne and Murchad gawky teenaged sweetness, when Synne finally figures out she likes him, and kissing him is not at all a bad thing.
• 2 Feb. 1083 - "Colban lets go" ...of Malcolm on the eve of his knighthood. A sad and sweet father & son chapter, made even more bittersweet by Malcolm's inability to admit that Iylaine is dying.
• 21 Feb. 1083 - "Egelric lets go" ...of Iylaine on the eve of her wedding. A sad and sweet father & daughter chapter this time.
  

  “It is the beginning of some things, but also the end of others.  Now we shall never have a little house, as you used to say, just you and I.”

• 16 Apr. 1083 - "Lady Gwynn drinks up romance to the dregs". It's the chapter when Iylaine and Vash each seem to realize their love for each other, but both know it's already too late. "You never told me once." As Alred later said, the entire tragedy is told in those five words.
• 19 May 1083 - "Lady Eadgith's priorities are rearranged". I adore Leofric in this one. He is showing that wise, loving patriarch side that we have seen again quite recently. I remember this one as the "being careful with his head" chapter, as in:
  

  “Let me tell you something else, Eadie.  I have known your husband since I was a snotty-nosed page in his father’s castle.  I knew him when he was a tiny baby, and Lady Hwala used to let me hold him, so long as I promised I would be careful with his little head.  And last night I was kneeling in the woods beside him, waiting for the men to come with a litter, and I found myself holding his head as his blessed mother showed me.  But I realized I had not been careful with it, as I had promised her.  If he had died…”

  He has his ugly moments, but there are some incredible depths of feeling to that rowdy gentleman.

• 5 Oct. 1083 - "Sigrid is steadfastly minded" The Eirik + Sigi romance begins in earnest as Sigi and Eirik both come to the startling realization that she loves him. And it's one of the rare occasions when they "say the words".
• 27 Nov. 1083 - "Lili has a few thoughts". Nothing flashy or dramatic, just a tender little conversation between Lili and Egelric. They are adorable together, Lili all silly and flirty, and Egelric all grumbly but occasionally breaking into laughter, and then they get a little sad and serious and Lili comes up with her quotable thought:
  

  "I think that we should try and try to be happy whenever we can and however we can, even if there is a risk that we will be made unhappy.  I think we must keep trying."

  I just want to replay that night over and over and over again and never let anything happen to those two.

• 25 Dec. 1083 - "Egelric meets a little turtle" So sweet, with the proud Papa, and the proud Mama, and Egelric getting his moment of happiness with his little grandson in his arms.
• 2 Feb. 1084 - "Ethelwyn wishes Mouse a happy birthday". It's probably the sweetest chapter with those two, since every one later is always bittersweet in some way or another. Even the end of this one is a worrying sort of foreshadowing. But the rest of it is adorable and funny. Mouse and the Old Ethelwyn were always cute together.
• 2 Feb. 1084 - "Pol touches his daughter" The one time poor Pol was able to see his daughter up close and even touch her as he passed her son to her.
  

  Then began the moment he had been awaiting with the stoic patience of a rock through thirteen harsh winters: his daughter was coming towards him with a smile.

  Of course, the smile was not for him.  She saw nothing but the baby in his arms, and he did not think she would even remember his face after he had gone.  However, it was his chance to observe her own, his chance to brush her hands with his fingers as he passed the baby over to her.

• 20 May 1084 - "Sigefrith tells the plain truth" ...to Cubby about his paternity.
• 30 Jan. 1085 - "Catan asks for something to offer". Cat and "the elf" finally kiss!
• 14 Feb. 1085 - "The time is for farewell" ...between Father Brude and Flann.
• 4 Mar. 1085 - "Aengus swings away a wall" Lena is so so so sweet in this chapter. They both are, even if this moment is now sort of spoiled by all that we know is coming after, and some things I know that you don't yet. But Lena... she knows she shouldn't expect love, but she wants it all the same. And in this chapter we get glimpses of a depth to her that rarely shows, with her modesty and self-effacement and imperfect English.
• 18 Apr. 1085 - "Stein's bed is half-empty". The sweet and sad last moments that Stein will spend with his beloved first wife.
• 24 Apr. 1085 - "Stein sees the reason, if not the way" A sweet scene with Stein and his little sister, as he's trying to take care of his orphaned brother and sister while dealing with his own grief.
• 14 Jun. 1085 - "Alred challenges Britamund to a race". Alred asking Brit how she really feels about marrying Dunstan. One of the last non-exasperated "Oh, Alred!" chapters we will have for a while.
• 15 Aug. 1085 - "Britamund becomes a wife". Dunstan is sweet AND yummy. They both are, really.
• 16 Sep. 1085 - "Belsar finds the important thing". Ah, canine love and loyalty!
• 17 Sep. 1085 - "Seven makes it up" The one where chapter comes up with "Larl" all by himself and takes Lar's breath away. Anything with Seven and Lar is poignant, though, if you ask me.
• 21 Sep. 1085 - "Vin does not go". Finn meets his father for the first time.
• 25 Sep. 1085 - "Flann learns how to write". Shy Osh draws the heart in the fog on the windowpane. One of the sweetest moments EVER if you can bear to like Osh.
• 13 Oct. 1085 - "Malcolm goes out into the rain" The kiss in the rain chapter!!!
• 30 Oct. 1085 - "Dunstan is proven wrong" Dunstan guesses Brit is pregnant after seeing her throw up on the floor. Proof that Dunstan is the New Alred:
  

  At once she relaxed and gratefully draped the curves of her long body over his.  Her head was heavy and warm on his shoulder like a baby.  He had never felt such utter trust from anyone, such comfort taken in his simple presence, and his heart resumed its steady pounding.

  Again he had thought he could not possibly love his wife more, and again she had proven him wrong.  Had she not?  Did she not seem more fragile, more precious, more magical than ever?

  And even if he had been mistaken—if she revealed it had only been the wine after all, or a bad egg she had eaten—would he love her less?  Would these new torrents of love turn back like a tide and leave him no wetter than before?  He did not think they would.  That was the most mysterious, most magical thing.

• 11 Nov. 1085 - "Stein finds what he was seeking". Stein and Sophie finally clinging to each other!
• 17 Nov. 1085 - "Alred sees no poetry". No poetry, perhaps, but there was much Matilda in it!
• 20 Nov. 1085 - "Alred will still". Alred alive! Alred telling jokes of questionable propriety! Alred calling Britamund his beauty!
• 25 Nov. 1085 - "Flann makes a mew". Flann, Sebastien, and Liadan... it came so close to coming together here.
• 26 Nov. 1085 - "Ralf offers all he has". Poor romantic, melancholy, sweet sweet generous Ralf.
• 4 Dec. 1085 - "Flann sees the secret". In case I did not convince you of Osh's romantic rightness in "Flann learns how to write", in this chapter he does The Thing! With the Ring!
• 4 Dec. 1085 - "Liadan sees her saddest light" Liadan spends a few moments with Araphel. His love is luminous.
• 7 Dec. 1085 - "Sigrid hears a call". The last chapter in the Eirik + Sigi saga? Will they ever meet again?
• 12 Dec. 1085 - "Hetty reads the one word" For love of Hetty Leof lowers himself to poetry-writing.
• 13 Dec. 1085 - "Haakon has the key". Haakon is the new Young Sigefrith. No poet, a little shy, but gentle and loving. "I like the way you say that word."
• 14 Dec. 1085 - "Cedric learns what matters". Leofric again!
• ...? Coming soon! Hetty and Leof? Malcolm and Lasrua?? Sigi??? Eirik??? Lar??? Careballs???

OMG, Egelric Meets A Turtle! I get teary-eyed every time I read that one.

I think I'm going to go back and read some of those chapters now. Yay!

Omg there are just too many to decide. I am just going to choose the ones from this list that I think are the sweetest and then keep thinking about it. I think I will have to say that "Egelric lets go", "Pol touches his daughter", "The time is for farewell", "Stein's bed is half-empty", "Britamund becomes a wife" and "Sigrid hears a call".

Oh man... just going back and looking at "The time is for farewell" and poor Brude with his tightly shut eyes. *Sniffle*.

It is so totally hard to decided even between the ones you have put up there and there are so many more. One of my favourite chapters is when Ethelwyn and Mouse get together in Father Brandt's room with the bull jokes. It is funny but it is also so very sweet even if it is bittersweet.

I am going to have to think about this a bit more.