Could the Bracken-Blackwood feud be solved by creating a buffer house in between them. Say a second son from one of their houses and a daughter from the other is given Pennytree, and the houses give the disputed lands as a dowry/bride price to this new house.

Given how many Bracken-Blackwood marriages have failed to do this, I don’t think it would work: chances are, they’d gang up on the buffer house and then turn on each other once it’s destroyed.

“I, against my brothers. I and my brothers against my cousins. I and my brothers and my cousins against the world.”