Red’s eyes were chilly. “I see no such thing,” he said levelly. “Or cannot you recognize Richard’s hand in this?”

“What are you saying?” His mother was shocked. “My own brother? Why should he seek to burn down the house of his closest kin, why stoop to childish trickery? I know he did not approve of the girl’s presence here, but to suggest this is—is preposterous. Besides, he is over the water, and has been long since. Unless you believe he, too, resorts to sorcery to achieve his ends? Really, Hugh, sometimes you astonish me.”

He let her finish.

“If not your brother, then who?” he said. “What other enemy has she so close at hand? For this blow is not for us, mother. This strikes at Jenny’s heart and at her will. The price of this fire is three moons, four moons of silence. Another whole season of waiting.”

I’m afraid, at that, I burst into tears. Silent tears, but hard enough to make my shoulders shake and my nose run. Perhaps they had forgotten me, there where I crouched on the floor by the charred remains of my work. But I had not been able to shut out their voices. I put my hands over my face.

“I must confess, I do feel some sympathy for the girl,” said Lady Anne, fumbling for a handkerchief. “Here, use this,” she said. Red was quiet, watching me. “Off you go, Hugh,” his mother said firmly. “There’s no need for you here. I will deal with this.” But he ignored her, and I heard rather than saw him come close and kneel down beside me where I sat weeping on the floor.

“Tomorrow,” he said. “I cannot take you myself, but John will ride out with you to the place where this plant grows. You can bring back whatever you need. This hurts, I know. But you have been strong before, and you will be now. What is burned can be replaced; what is destroyed can be made again. In time you will win back your voice. In time—in time, you will find your path back home.”

I would not look directly at him, but I lowered my hands from my wet cheeks, and used my fingers to speak to him. My thoughts were muddled with distress, my gestures less than clear. Long. Long time. I—tired. You—too—tired. That drew a wry expression from him, a lopsided stretch of the mouth.

“I’m good at waiting. You’d be surprised how good,” he said.

There was one more thing I had to ask him. It wasn’t easy to show. How you know—spin, weave—voice? He understood all right. A tiny shadow of a smile, soon gone.

“I’m learning to listen,” he said. “Slowly.”

Over his shoulder, I saw Lady Anne’s face, frozen in disapproval as she watched us. Well, I didn’t care what she thought. It would take all my strength and all my will to set to again, to make up the work that had been destroyed. I would have no energy for speculation or worry. Tomorrow I would go out, and I would gather enough starwort for two whole shirts. And I would work day and night, night and day until I finished the task. No enemy was going to stop me. I was the daughter of the forest, and if my feet faltered on the path from time to time, at least they were going straight forward into the dark. And perhaps I was not quite alone.