‘You foul-mouthed scum!’ Grim made to lunge forward, but Blackthorn laid a hand on his arm and he halted at her touch.

‘Gormán,’ said Tóla, ‘confirm my account of events for Mistress Blackthorn, will you?’

Gormán had been standing in the shadows by the barn wall, keeping very quiet. Cara willed him to say that he had not known, that he had been misled, that if he had been aware of the truth he would have taken no part in it.

‘And while you are doing so,’ put in Mistress Blackthorn, ‘you might tell us what you were planning to do with those toadstools that are standing ready on your table in there. They’re screamers, did you realise? One mouthful would be sufficient to send a man raving mad. Two would kill him. It seems to me screamers might have played a part in this story before.’

Cara heard Grim draw in his breath. She realised she had sunk her teeth into her lip so hard it was bleeding.

‘Toadstools? What are you talking about?’ Tóla had his legs apart and his arms folded. He looked as if he was defying the world. ‘Gormán, it seems Mistress Blackthorn doubts the credibility of my story. Sadly, my daughter is so much under the witch’s influence that she, too, cannot believe it. You were there. You were there from the first. Speak up!’

Gormán’s face was all shadows and lines, as if he’d suddenly turned very old. Cara felt a pain in her chest, looking at him. Her friend. Her dear friend, the one person she’d always been able to go to, to talk to, to say anything to and know she would be heard. She had done this to him. She had brought that terrible look to his face by being discontent. By wanting answers. She knew before he opened his mouth that he was not going to say what Tóla wanted.

‘Mistress Della,’ Gormán said, ‘and Cara. My words will cause both of you pain, and for that I am truly sorry. But they must be said. Cara, you have been as dear to me as a daughter. Anything I have done, I have done out of love for you and in the belief that I was acting in your best interest.’

‘Now wait –’ began Tóla, outraged, then fell silent as Cúan stepped up beside him, his hand on his knife hilt. Several of the Longwater men had closed in around him. Fedach was among them, looking very serious.