Cathal made no comment. He had taken some strips of dried meat from his pack and added them to the pot. I was hungry enough to find the smell quite appealing. I rocked Becan again, singing him to sleep.

When the child was tucked back into the cloak, Cathal passed me the cup, full of the meat and water brew. “We’ll run out of drinking water soon,” he said. “Does this rule about not eating Otherworld food really extend to the streams and ponds as well?”

I tried to remember stories I had heard on the subject. “I don’t know. I do believe the Fair Folk intend me to do this. It must be possible for me to find Finbar and bring him back. Perhaps drinking the water will be safe. I mean, there’s no reason why the Fair Folk would want to trap me in the Otherworld.”

After a silence that seemed slightly too long, Cathal said, “True. Well, if our journey lasts more than another day or two, we’ll have no choice but to put that to the test.”

“Cathal?”

“Yes?”

“This cloak. It intrigues me.”

“Uh-huh.” His tone was less than encouraging.

“Aidan said the tokens sewn into it are from your past; that they’re memories. I’m wondering . . .”

“What, Clodagh?” In his voice I heard the old Cathal, the one who would more likely snap at me for being a busybody than offer any kind of explanation. “You seek a confidence in exchange for the ones you have provided?”

I waited a little, watching his expression. The unease was there again, the shadow of a deep-seated fear. I was certain of it. “I just thought you might be prepared to talk about it,” I said. “Especially now, when there’s nobody but me to hear you.”

“There’s nothing to tell.” Cathal shifted uneasily, prodding the fire with a stick. “You mentioned that you were exactly the person I saw when I first met you: a paragon of the domestic arts with not much to her beneath the surface. I am precisely the man I was when you clapped eyes on me: a selfish, arrogant outsider even shorter on manners than he is on common sense. What more could you need to know?” He tossed the stick onto the fire.

I sat silent. True, I’d said not long ago that my only potential was as a nice wife for someone. That didn’t mean I liked hearing Cathal confirm the fact.

“I was wrong, of course,” he said. “You’re not that woman at all. But I, unfortunately, am that man. Peel away my layers and all you’ll find is more of the same. All dazzle and no substance.”