‘She means everything to me, Mistress Blackthorn. I want her to be happy. I want her to feel safe. I never want her to be afraid again. Ness is a strong girl; a brave girl. She wouldn’t have got through this otherwise. Between us, we’ll make a good life. It may not be the life some folk would choose, but we’ll be content.’ After a little, he added, ‘You don’t know me. I understand you’d be doubtful. You could have a word with Mam. She’d love to meet you. Ness and Emer told her all about you. It’s not far, just over the other side of the lake. We were going to walk over anyway, me and Ness and Emer.’

‘Isn’t that a bit far for Ness?’

‘She says not. She and Emer have been going out every day. Emer says fresh air and exercise are good for Ness. Will you come?’

He was a charming young man. So was Prince Oran. They said all the right things, the two of them. Gave folk no reason to doubt them. Who was to say Abhan might not, on his wedding night or even earlier, take it into his head to act just as Oran had toward Flidais?

‘I’ll be honest with you, Mistress Blackthorn. There’s another reason I’d like you to visit the camp. My grandmother is poorly. This cough has settled on her chest and she can’t shake it off. And she’s old. Remembers the wise woman who lived at Dreamer’s Wood before you. Holly, was that her name?’

A pox on it. Now I’d have to go with him. Not because of my vow to Conmael, which I’d broken already, in intention if not in deeds. But because, despite everything, I wanted to hear that story, the one about Dreamer’s Pool and the pigs, and this old woman might know it. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘but it needs to be quick; I’ve other things to do with my day, what’s left of it.’ Nobody would look for me in a travellers’ camp. I’d keep this as short as I could, and head off straight afterwards.

The travellers had made their camp on a grassy sward near the lake shore. At the far end were the horse lines, where folk were tending to a large number of animals. Closer at hand, the carts were drawn up in a half-circle. Most of them had covers, so folk could sleep inside, protected from the weather; some were almost like little houses on wheels. These folk favoured bright colours. Their clothing filled the area with patches of red and yellow and blue, as if a flock of exotic birds had alighted there by the water.