“Not him. Cathal. I know he’s your friend, but there’s something about him that’s . . . peculiar.” I could hardly tell him what Cathal had said to me last night, since it had amounted to a warning about Aidan himself. I was not sure if Aidan was supposed to be too good for me or whether it was the other way around. That was irrelevant, anyway, since I planned to take no notice of Cathal’s warnings. I doubted very much that Aidan would appreciate his friend’s efforts to select which girls he might or might not dance with.

“Did he say something to upset you last night?” Aidan asked, suddenly serious.

“No,” I said hastily. “A minor misunderstanding, that was all.”

“Cathal doesn’t want to be here,” Aidan said. “He’s ill at ease in chieftains’ halls. Edgy. He means no harm by it.”

I found that hard to believe. Eilis’s explanation for the tree-climbing episode had been plausible from her point of view. But surely no responsible young man would have taken the two children out into the forest alone, when they were clearly meant to be somewhere else, and encouraged them to do something so risky. What if Coll had been meant to fall, and my arrival with Aidan had spoiled the plan? What if someone else, an accomplice, a gray-cloaked stranger, had been waiting to spirit my little sister away?

“We should walk as quickly as we can,” I said, glancing from side to side under the trees and picking up my pace. I shouldn’t have let the children run after Cathal. I should have insisted on keeping them in sight all the way back.

“The children will be quite safe, Clodagh.” Aidan’s expression was quizzical. “There’s no need to worry.”

“How is it the two of you are friends?” I asked him. “You’re so different.”

“We were raised together. We’ve become used to each other.”

“You are foster brothers?” I could not recall Aidan making any mention of Cathal during his last visit here.

“Not exactly. He grew up in my father’s household; we were born within days of each other. His mother was a local woman of humble origins. Father took Cathal in. We became friends and shared an education. When I decided to try my luck at Inis Eala Cathal came with me, thus ensuring I would not shine in feats of arms. On the island he’s considered second only to Johnny. He was supposed to come to Sevenwaters with us last year, but somehow he argued his way out of it.”

“Well, he can certainly climb,” I conceded.