‘There wasn’t much left to bury,’ she says. ‘When it was done I picked up my healer’s bag and walked away. Out of the village, out of Laois, as far as I could get. I was small fry to Mathuin. I doubt he even knew the troublesome scholar had a family. I went south. Had some dark years. Dreamed of them every night, my gentle Cass, my sweet Brennan, screaming in the flames. My baby calling out for his mama and wondering why she didn’t come.’

No point in saying it wasn’t her doing. No point in telling her she couldn’t have helped them any more than she could have put out today’s fire all on her own. This is a burden she’s carried a long time, and she won’t ever be putting it down. ‘But you went back,’ I say. ‘Back to Laois and back to Mathuin.’

‘Fool that I am, yes, I went back. Heard from some travellers that he was still chieftain, the challenge hadn’t happened, or hadn’t succeeded. Heard he was still hurting folk, women in particular, and nobody was brave enough to stand up to him. You know what happened after that. I ended up in that place, with you to stare at through the bars. Hungry for justice. Eaten up with wanting that man to pay for what he did.’ There’s quiet for a bit, and then she says, ‘He didn’t know. That I was Cass’s wife. I came back to Laois with a different name, a different look, older, worn down. And I never went back to my home village. Never will. I can be brave sometimes, but I’m not brave enough for that.’ Another silence. ‘Makes me wonder if Mathuin had found out who I was. That day, I mean, when Slammer came to tell me I wasn’t going to the council after all.’

‘Mm. Be risky to go back, then.’

‘Are you trying to tell me Conmael’s in the right?’

‘Nah. Don’t care for the fellow. But he’s not wrong either. If you went, you’d be a marked woman. Not much point in rushing back just to get yourself killed.’

‘I can’t do it!’ This bursts out of her; she’s got her fists clenched and it sounds as if she’s got her teeth clenched too. ‘Seven poxy years! I can’t wait that long, I can’t!’ She bends forward and beats at her head with her fists, rocking back and forward.