‘True enough,’ I say. ‘But there they are, just over the fields, and we’re stuck with them. Maybe this Oran will be a good husband to the lady and maybe he won’t. That’s not our business.’

Blackthorn gives me a look. ‘It’s hard, sometimes, not to make things your business. Like with Mathuin. If I’d stayed quiet, let the bad things keep on happening, I wouldn’t have been locked up. If I’d kept quiet all my life I wouldn’t have been in Laois at all.’

I don’t say a thing. Blackthorn never talks about the time before, and nor do I. For us, the story starts when she was brought into that place and we were prisoners together. I know she fell foul of Mathuin because she spoke up about the wrongs he was doing, taking women against their will, getting them with child, nobody saying a word because of who he was. But before that, nothing at all. Until now.

‘That’s my problem,’ she says. ‘I never did learn to keep my mouth shut. And I can’t now, if the same thing happens here, Prince Oran doing the wrong thing by his folk, I mean. Conmael made me promise to use my abilities for good, not ill. That means speaking up if something isn’t right. A wise woman is supposed to be . . . wise.’

‘Might be wiser to keep quiet,’ I say. Wouldn’t take much to get us thrown out of here, on the road again, nowhere to go. Her with more and more years owing to Conmael; me just a burden to her. Or worse. We might find ourselves locked up again. ‘It’s a healer these folk need, not a . . .’ Can’t find the right word.

‘Conscience?’ Blackthorn smiles, but it’s not a happy sort of smile. ‘Don’t look so worried, Grim. Maybe Oran’s a paragon of virtue, a prince among princes. And maybe he’ll be so busy preparing for his wedding that he’ll forget all about us.’ She spots the purse they gave her, on the table where she’s left it. ‘They seemed keen to pay me for my efforts, though I couldn’t save the girl. Have a look.’

When I loosen the string and turn the bag upside down, what spills out onto the table is a shiny stream of silver pieces. I came home proud of the money I earned from Scannal today, but this puts my ten coppers in the shade. I whistle; Blackthorn mutters an oath.

‘Talk about upside down and back to front,’ she says. ‘A small fortune for failing to save a girl from drowning.’

‘Paying you for your kindness.’ Seems plain to me. ‘Helping his young lady. Cares about her.’

‘He’s probably never seen her in his life before,’ says Blackthorn, sweeping the coins back in the bag. ‘He won’t give a toss about her. All that’ll matter to him is her father’s connections. See if I’m not right.’