All three of them, Donagan included, stared at me as if I were out of my wits. Then Mhairi said, ‘Yes, my lord,’ and went back to fetch the dog. What ensued was a little awkward. When Mhairi re-emerged from the women’s quarters with Bramble on the leash, Flidais’s pet was struggling against the restraint. We had heard her yelps of complaint well before she appeared. When she saw us, Bramble stiffened, falling abruptly silent. Then she ran toward me, hauling Mhairi along behind her. I crouched to greet the dog. She put her forefeet up on my knee and tried to lick my face. No greeting for her beloved mistress; Flidais might as well not have been there.

‘You’ve made a friend,’ observed Donagan, who perhaps did not quite understand the subtleties of the situation.

‘So it seems.’ I rose to my feet. ‘Go to your mistress, little one. There she is, see?’

‘She won’t walk with me.’ Flidais was looking at the ground. ‘Mhairi will take her.’

‘Which way would you like to go?’ I asked, hoping the walk would lift her spirits as well as the dog’s. ‘We should avoid the stables, which are over there. Bramble is certainly not ready for an encounter with Eochu’s lurchers, though they’re well trained.’ The mare my father had chosen as a wedding gift for Flidais had arrived and was being settled by our grooms; I would take my lady to see it some other time, without Bramble.

I had thought Flidais might ask to visit the place where Ciar had been buried, but all she said was, ‘You choose, Oran.’

‘Let’s walk to the top of that rise, up past the farm cottages,’ I suggested. ‘See, where the hazel trees are? From there we can show you the lie of the land.’ As we set off, I added, ‘The folk of Winterfalls settlement will be anxious to get to know you. I visit them regularly, and they come here for my monthly open council, where we hear various matters of concern, arbitrate on disputes and so on. And chat over cakes and ale afterwards. There’s been much interest in my future bride, as you may imagine.’ Gods, I seemed capable of only the most stilted of utterances this morning. Where was the fluent poet of the letters? Perhaps I should have defied convention and left both Donagan and Mhairi behind. It was not as if my lady and I were likely to engage in any form of intimacy out here, with so many folk going along the paths or working in the fields.