On a fine day you could get a wide view from here. Today the rain veiled everything. She could make out Dreamer’s Wood, a darker haze, and the water lying on the fields, and cattle huddling under the little groves that dotted the landscape, hazel, willow, apple. The settlement lay beyond the walls of the prince’s establishment, a scatter of cottages around the more substantial forms of the smithy, the weaver’s, the baker’s, the brewer’s. The mill stood by itself in farmland. Within the prince’s walls, closer at hand, grooms were leading a steady stream of horses from stables to gate. Men-at-arms, dressed for a journey, rode their own horses down to the courtyard. She narrowed her eyes. Was that the man who’d been at the cottage yesterday, the one with the dog tattoo? Cúan, hound, that was his name. But no. This was a different man, darker, and the facial marking was different too, with a strong, sharp line emphasising an already beak-like nose. This one was marked like a bird of some kind, maybe a hawk. She’d never seen him at Winterfalls before. But he wasn’t sneaking around like the other one, he was riding openly with the prince’s guards. Going to court with them, it looked like. She’d mention it to Blackthorn. Only it looked as if nobody would be bothered to escort her over to the cottage today. They were all too busy.

‘It’s an opportunity,’ Cara said to the ancient yew. ‘I could walk out that gate and over to Dreamer’s Wood, and instead of visiting Blackthorn I could simply keep going all the way to Wolf Glen. I could do it, I know I could. And when I got there I wouldn’t even need to let Father see me. I could stay under the trees until I was right near the barn, and I could just slip in and visit Gormán and Conn. I could ask Gormán to tell me the truth. Why Father doesn’t want me there. What’s going on. It would be easy. Nobody would even miss me. Mhairi’s not going to care. And who else is there?’ Donagan was going to court with the prince, Deirdre and Nuala were going with Lady Flidais, the nursemaids were going to look after the little boy. That did leave quite a few folk at Winterfalls, but none of them had shown much interest in Cara. Most of them only saw her at meals, or occasionally in passing. Anyway they’d be tired and out of sorts after all the fuss. She could do it. She should do it. Her father hadn’t come to visit her once. Not once.