I nodded. “I remember it. A story of two brothers.”

“You said I could make it end in any way I chose. This path or that. I came to believe you. But you were wrong. I have waited, and waited to find you again. But you married my brother. This, too, he has taken from me.”

There was nothing I could say. I stumbled ahead with words, anyway. “I didn’t know—how could I know?…Do you remember everything? Then why—”

“Who would believe the truth?” he asked, and the blue eyes were for a moment as deep and stark and lonely as his brother’s. “This way is easier. Who would believe, but you?”

We rode on in silence. Ahead of us I could see Red riding alone, leading the way, and behind him four of my brothers, Liam and Diarmid, Cormack and Conor, their horses following his along the track, which had narrowed as the terrain grew steeper. We rode on through the woods, until we reached the place where the trees opened up, and you could see the wide expanse of the sea before you. Across that shining water, in the west, was home. And the forest. My forest.

“We used to come here long ago,” said Simon. “There are seals, sometimes.”

“I know,” I said.

His gaze sharpened. “He brought you here?”

“I have seen the cove,” I said, thinking, I cannot go back there. Don’t make me say good-bye there. I may be strong, but I am not strong enough for that.

“Nobody else knew,” said Simon very quietly. “We told no one of this place. Even Elaine, we never told.”

I said nothing. A little further along the track, the others waited for us. Behind us, Ben and Padriac emerged from the trees and came up at a crisp canter. I saw a huge grin of delight appear on Padriac’s face as he got his first glimpse of the wide, glittering expanse of water which had so astonished me when I had first seen it. As we sat there, looking out to the west, Finbar rode up slowly behind. His eyes showed nothing, and his expression was blank.

“It’s just up there to the north,” said Red. “We keep a boat in the next cove, not far from here. Our man should be ready. You have a good day for it; a fair wind.”

“Have a mind to your sister’s stomach,” put in Ben. “She’s not overkeen on sea voyages.”

All too soon, it seemed, we were gathered on the shore, and by the sea a dour boatman I had met once before was readying his small craft. Padriac, whose ventures had hitherto been confined to the calmer waters of the lake, sprang to help him, and was soon busy with ropes and oars. The horses grazed further up the hill, too well disciplined, or too weary, to wander far. Red had walked away from us, and stood alone on the rocks, looking out to sea.

I said good-bye to Ben, as Liam took my pathetically small bundle of belongings down to the boat, and the others stretched cramped limbs and gazed into the west, across the tumbling waves, across the wide water, straining for some glimpse of the land they knew lay there. Ben hugged me, and said, “Don’t forget us,” and I said how could I forget such a fine head of hair, and that I would pass all his jokes onto my brothers. He turned away and made himself suddenly very busy with a troublesome piece of harness.