After that we walk Emer to the smithy and Fraoch gives us a slap-up meal, ale and all. By the time we’re heading home, Blackthorn and me are just about asleep on our feet. Which is why we don’t think too much about the smell of smoke or where it might be coming from until we’re over the rise. That’s when we see our house is on fire.

Then there’s the drumbeat of my running feet, the wheezy bellows of my breath. And the smoke rising, the smell of burning thatch, burning wood, everything going up in flames. Blackthorn somewhere behind me.

A long run, chest hurting, heart going crazy, and I’m there. Hard to get in close, it’s so hot. I reach the well, drop the bucket down, haul it up. Can’t see Blackthorn for the smoke. I run and throw the water on, run back to pull up another bucketful. Fire’s got too much of a hold but I keep on anyway. The place is all flickering light, flying sparks and straw from the roof. Another bucket, another one, another . . . Can’t breathe. Bend over, hands on my knees.

Lot of noise, flames roaring, things falling down. And screaming. A woman screaming. Blackthorn. Didn’t think my heart could go any quicker but it does. Gallops like a spooked horse.

I’m nearly blind in the smoke. I stumble around, shouting out her name, thinking she’s in there and burning. The screaming goes on, and there are words in it but I can’t catch them. One thing I can see is the path under my feet, so I follow that and nearly crash into her. She doesn’t even see me. She’s beating at the flames with her cloak, making embers jump all around her, onto her hair, onto her clothes, and what she’s calling out is two names, over and over. Her voice is a deep-down rasping sob. Puts a pain in my chest to hear it.

‘Cass! Brennan! No, no! Cass! Brennan!’

She’s not here, she’s in some other place, some other time, and if I don’t do something it won’t only be the house that goes up, it’ll be her with it. I grab hold of her and haul her out of harm’s way. For a bit she fights me, still shouting, ‘Cass! Brennan!’ Then all of a sudden she crumples down onto the path with her hands over her face. Her voice goes to a whisper. ‘Cass. Brennan.’