‘Ah,’ said Tóla. ‘I almost forgot. Grim asked for a message to be passed on. He’ll be accommodated at Wolf Glen from now until the end of the job. The work is taking too long. The new arrangement will ensure the building progresses more quickly. The daily ride to and fro was impractical from the first.’

I felt as if I’d been punched in the belly. I had no breath. No words.

‘I’ll bid you good day, Mistress Blackthorn, and thank you for your help.’ Without waiting for the reply I was unable to voice, he turned and rode away with his two men following.

‘What about rain days?’ I whispered. ‘Can he still come home on those?’

But nobody heard. And it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. I knew in my sad, stupid, ridiculous heart that Grim would be away on rain days too. How dare that man ask me for a charm of protection when he was taking away my own protector, my sanity, my other half . . .

Your what? The inner voice chimed in. Stop this right now. You’re not some silly, pathetic soul, you’re a fighter. You’re the one who stands up for other folk when they’re too scared to speak out for themselves. Don’t you dare shed tears. Put on your cloak, go over to Winterfalls and see Cara. Talk to folk and find out what’s going on with Mathuin. Don’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself. Do something.

The cloak, the walk, I managed just fine. The tears, not quite so well.

Twenty-five: Cara

25

~Cara~

He’d left her at Winterfalls again. And this time people hadn’t even pretended they were pleased to have her there. Mhairi had lifted her brows and tightened her lips. Aedan the steward had been perfectly polite, but had seemed to have his mind on other things. It hadn’t helped that Father had blamed them, blamed the entire household, for not noticing she’d run away until quite late in the day. She’d got them all in trouble. For nothing. Her plan had been a disaster. Father hadn’t wanted to listen to her, even though she’d done her very best to find the words and get them out. He wasn’t interested in why she had done it. He just wanted to get rid of her again, even though in the night time when Gormán and Grim had brought her home he had hugged her and wept over her and told her he loved her. By morning that softness was gone, and she had found herself mute again. He hadn’t even let her go to the barn to say goodbye to Gormán and to thank Grim.