“Be silent!” My father’s rage was palpable. “Do not speak my lady’s name, for your words sully that which is spotless. You repay me thus for my trust in you? Get out of my sight!”

“Father, he begs you simply to listen.” Liam’s voice shook slightly. “Donal is not alone in these thoughts. The lady Oontagh has a power which—which affects us all. Your men are uneasy, your household fearful. Eilis and her father were forced away. Your lady seeks to divide brother from brother, father from son, and friend from friend, until each of us is alone. She will destroy this household if you let her.”

There was a long pause this time, and I could hear Father’s breathing, and see Liam’s white, anxious face. He had taken a great risk. After a while Father said slowly, “What do you mean, forced away? The girl had a weak stomach, that was all. What can that have to do with my lady?”

“There was poison in the food,” said Liam quietly. “Very specific poison, and in her dish alone. We tried to tell you. Sorcha knows much of these things, which was fortunate for Eilis, who else might have died. There is no proof who put it there, but rumor runs fast.”

“To blame my lady is as foolish as to blame my daughter herself,” said Father, but his tone had changed, as of he were at last hearing what they were saying. “Why should she wish to do such a thing?”

To divide father and son, I thought, so that her own child can inherit. Or perhaps her plan is bigger still.

“There was poison before,” said Father. He looked Donal straight in the eye. “You said your men were given a sleeping draft, the day their captive escaped. But that was before ever the lady Oonagh came here. These theories are nothing but inventions, fantasies to salve your pride, a ruse so I will change my mind and perhaps keep you on here a little longer.”

“Not so,” said Donal, and he picked up the small pack he had by him. I noticed, then, the sword by his side, the bow over his shoulder. “My heart is here, and my life’s work, but I will leave as I am bidden. I ask only that you heed my words, and your son’s. Be warned, and be watchful.” He reached out to clasp Liam by the elbow, and there were tears in my big brother’s eyes. Then Donal was gone, out of sight down the path. I heard the jingling of harness as he mounted his horse, and the hoofbeats going steadily away into the distance. Father stared after him through narrowed eyes.

“First Eilis and her father, now Donal,” said Liam. “If you do not wake soon you will lose us all, one by one.”

Father looked at him. “Perhaps you had better tell me what you mean,” he said. Liam moved closer, putting one hand on Father’s shoulder, and began to speak very quietly. A moment later, there was a peal of laughter, and a sound of running footsteps, and there was the lady Oonagh, a vision in velvet running down the path on dainty slippers. Her cloud of red hair whirled about her flushed cheeks, and her breasts were barely cupped by the tight bodice of the blue gown. A tracery of fine veins showed on her pearly flesh, and suddenly I knew, perhaps before she did, that she carried his child. Her alabaster skin seemed to glow from within. Behind her my brother Diarmid trotted in pursuit, all dimpled earnestness.