Felt the red rising inside me. Shoved it down. Told myself not to answer. Knew they were trying to goad me, get me angry, the fools.

‘Cat got your tongue, bonehead? Speak up when you’re spoken to, can’t you? Tell us about the witch. Dried-up old thing, isn’t she? Skinny as a mangy cur and evil-eyed with it. Big man like you can’t be getting much satisfaction from –’

The red was in my head, filling it up, blocking out everything. I was roaring, grabbing, squeezing, pounding. And then someone shouted ‘Stop it!’ and the red faded and there I was with a man in my grip, ready to thump his head down on the table one more time. ‘Stop!’ yelled Domnall again, and I let the man go. Looked around. Saw five of them white as ghosts, staring at me, and Domnall striding over from the doorway. The fellow I’d been holding was making a moaning sound. Not dead, then. Nobody was rushing to help him.

I stepped back. Black Crow’s curse! I’d just undone all Blackthorn’s good work. I’d just wrecked the mission. I’d get thrown out of Winterfalls or worse. Couldn’t bring myself to say sorry, though.

‘He called Blackthorn bad names,’ I said.

Domnall came up, gave the fellow a quick check. ‘You could have killed him,’ he said, looking at me. Truth was, if he hadn’t come in, I wouldn’t have stopped. I could see he knew that. ‘You’re due on watch,’ he said, though it was early. ‘Go now. Report to me first thing in the morning.’

That meant my time at Winterfalls was over. Would be over by morning. Even if Domnall gave me another chance, unlikely as that was, the men-at-arms wouldn’t accept what I’d done. I’d just made enemies of the lot of them.

Life’s full of surprises. Mostly bad ones – had plenty of those. Disappointments. Reversals. Nasty accidents. But sometimes there are good surprises, like Blackthorn letting me come with her to Dalriada, and then letting me stay. Or the folk from the village helping me rebuild our place after the fire. The morning after I nearly beat one of his men to a pulp, I reported to Domnall as ordered. Lochlan was with him, the prince’s master-at-arms, which made it even worse than I’d expected. I stood there in the guard room with my bag on my back, ready to leave as soon as they’d said what they had to say. One good thing, I was thinking. If they’d been going to lock me up they’d have done it already, not waited until I’d stood watch another night.

‘Well, Grim,’ Lochlan said. ‘How do you account for your violent outburst last night?’

‘What I said to Domnall, Master Lochlan. The men insulted Blackthorn. The lady is my friend. Just standing up for my friend.’