‘Tired, mm?’ Grim reached out as if to brush a strand of hair from my face, but drew his fingers away without touching me. ‘Sad, too.’

Tears pricked my eyes. I wanted nothing more than to lean on him, shut my eyes and will the rest of the world away for a while. What in the name of Danu was wrong with me? I’d delivered dozens of infants without turning to mush. ‘A few memories coming back,’ I said. ‘Nothing to bother yourself about. But I do want to stay, just to make sure she’ll be all right. If the weather clears and you have to work, you could get to Wolf Glen from here easily enough, couldn’t you?’ I hoped it would go on raining. We hadn’t had our day together yet. Not Fann’s fault; she could hardly be expected to time her child’s arrival to suit us. But I’d been looking forward to that day. Foolish woman.

‘Thing is,’ Grim said, and there was a note of apology in his voice, ‘I don’t think I can. Stay, that is. Met Bardán before. Up at that hut where the herbs were growing. Seems like that was his house, a long time ago.’

‘What was he doing there?’ My heart had gone down to my boots. I ordered myself sharply not to be so silly. ‘I thought you said they kept him on a short leash.’

‘That’s the problem. If he doesn’t get back to Wolf Glen soon he’ll be in trouble. Told him I’d go back when you didn’t need me anymore. Walk over there with him. If I’m around they might go easier on the poor sod. He’s in no fit state to be on his own. Been weeding around his wife’s grave. Funny, I didn’t even know there was a wife until today. Her and his parents, all buried up there. Don’t think he’d been to the house since he came back from the Otherworld. If that’s where he was, all those missing years.’

I swallowed several things I wanted to say, all of them selfish and wrong. ‘You’d better go, then. I can cope here. And if I don’t want to ride home on my own in the morning, I’ll ask Osgar or one of the others to come with me.’

‘You sure?’ Grim had a little frown on his brow. His eyes told me how easily he saw beneath my surface. ‘I can stay, if you want. Bardán’s a grown man. He walked over here, I daresay he can walk back. May even have headed off without me, seeing as the light’s fading.’

‘I’ll be fine. You should go.’ I drew a breath, trying to make it steady and quiet. ‘Grim.’

‘Mm?’

‘Thank you for looking after the men. Ross must have been beside himself with worry.’