‘My guess is that someone will report back to the queen, and that your mother will descend on Winterfalls to check on your health. If she does not like what she sees, she may decide to change the plan. To receive Lady Flidais at court instead, or to move here and take charge of your household herself. The queen will not be impressed if she believes you . . . unhinged.’

‘Unhinged!’ I shouted, leaping to my feet. My gaze met that of the painted Flidais, whose sweet image had changed me forever. I saw in her eyes that she still loved me, but that she thought I was being just a little ridiculous. ‘I’m sorry,’ I made myself say. ‘It’s just so hard waiting. Everything’s ready, or will be, the house is prepared, the arrangements are progressing, and there’s nothing for me to do but stamp about the place getting in everyone’s way.’

‘How about a ride?’ Donagan said. ‘Perhaps as far as the wood, or further if you like. The weather’s good; we may as well make the most of it. We could go through the village, see how the local folk are faring. They like it when you do that. Unusual for a prince perhaps. But you’re not like other princes. That, no doubt, is why Lady Flidais warmed to you.’

Winterfalls settlement lay just beyond the southern boundaries of my home farm; the main road to Cahercorcan ran through the village. We rode there, just Donagan and me, thereby breaking my father’s rule about never going anywhere without at least two guards in attendance. As a man settled in his own household and soon to be wed, I considered it unnecessary to abide by such rules. Besides, both Donagan and I could hold our own in a fight, should it come to that. Not that the local people were likely to attack either of us, since we were long known to them as summer tenants of the royal residence. I had known since I was a child that the place would one day be my home and that these would be my people, since it was customary for the prince of Dalriada to live at Winterfalls from his marriage until such time as he became king.

I’d never been over-fond of formality – that was one reason I did not want Flidais to go to Cahercorcan, a place bound by etiquette, precedence and protocol – and I had made it my duty to get to know the folk of Winterfalls well, to understand their daily lives, their work, the things that were important to them. Sometimes that meant disregarding the rules for princely behaviour that other folk – my mother, for instance, or Feabhal – set such store in. I wanted to be as good a leader as I could be, and it seemed to me folk would not follow a leader who knew little of them.