“You were afraid,” I said, recalling the shadows I had seen in his eyes as we crossed the river and as we camped in the forest at night. “If they’ve been tormenting you for years and years, you were crazy to come with me.”

“They knew I would come,” he said with frightening simplicity.

“This was what they wanted? Are you saying . . . Cathal, are you telling me it was no accident that you and I met in the forest? That the whole thing was controlled by the Fair Folk, to bring you here with me? But that would mean we were just . . . puppets. It would mean we had no free choices at all.” This notion was almost impossible to accept. “Why would they do that? They wouldn’t attach you to me as a protector. These folk have a facility with magic. They could make the path to Mac Dara’s hall as easy or difficult for me as they pleased. Besides, you say they’ve been pursuing you since long before you had anything to do with Sevenwaters. What reason could there be for that?”

Cathal grimaced. “I have a theory, but I’m by no means certain it’s correct. I hope very much that it isn’t. It is not a thing I can speak of here. If we get back safely I’ll tell you about it. Who would have thought the prospect of an honest talk could seem so enticing and so impossible?”

“Cathal.”

“Yes, Clodagh?” He had finished unpicking the objects from the cloak, and now he gathered them up into a small heap.

“Are you saying you believe that even Finbar’s abduction wouldn’t have happened if you had not been at Sevenwaters? That he was taken in order to ensure you came here with me?” It seemed the sort of theory that would only be invented by a man with a grossly inflated idea of his own importance in the scheme of things. I might be prepared to believe Cathal deluded, misguided, but I knew he was not the arrogant person I had once thought him. Besides, I could think of no good reason for the Fair Folk to punish my parents, who had long been wise custodians of the forest and staunch supporters of the old faith. I considered the idea that my family was involved in this only because . . . because Cathal felt something for me that was a great deal more significant that I had ever believed. A man does not follow a woman into a realm where he believes he will be under threat unless he feels more for her than simple lust. They learned, that day, that if you were in danger I would break any rule to rescue you.