‘If I free you would you run?’ Alannah asks, ignoring Raghnailt again. ‘Or would you sit here, waiting like a bitch for its master?’

‘I would run,’ Mary says. ‘I swear it.’

‘You would not make it far before Colca stopped you. He moves so fast,’ Alannah says. ‘You would have to take Emota. They would be after you quick.’

‘Stop this at once,’ Raghnailt says. ‘If she takes Emota, Colca will hurt her.’

‘And if she doesn’t, she will be caught again,’ Alannah answers.

Raghnailt hears footsteps outside. She takes hurriedly to her bed, throwing the sheepskin over herself and turning on her side. Colca appears in the doorway, blocking out most of its light. He stands there, hunched over with breathlessness, his hands on his knees.

‘Well,’ he eventually says. ‘I heard ye talking. Do not pretend silence with me. Are my own mother and wife so afraid of me that they cannot even look at me?’

None of the women respond; the only sound is Mary’s drinking. Colca looks around the room, shakes his head.

‘Never mind,’ he says, ‘there is trouble coming. You must all stay indoors today. It would seem that the Gaels have marked the town. They will come for us. Today is that day.’

‘What has happened?’ Alannah asks.

‘There is something outside the town, some structure, I think. I do not know what it is, for I’ve never seen its like.’

‘What nonsense,’ Raghnailt says. ‘No matter how much fear that new man may stir up, and no matter how much rumour is prattled in Kells, it will not undo the matter that the Gaels have not attacked us since Alannah arrived. Even before that we always had good relationships with them. No one at all is in their right minds today. I will not stay a-bed for this foolishness. Not again, it is too much.’

‘Things are not how they were, Mother,’ Colca says. ‘How do you not understand that?’

‘Is this structure in the shape of Jesus’ death?’ Alannah asks, hiding the crow’s feather behind her back.

Colca cocks his head at her, regarding her with suspicion.

‘No, it is more crooked than that,’ he says, ‘but how did you guess so closely?’

Alannah shrugs, and Raghnailt is surprised, feels uneasy.

‘Do you know something?’ Raghnailt asks.

‘I have been by your side in this room these last six days,’ Alannah protests.

‘This is true,’ Raghnailt says.

Colca brings himself up to his true height and puts his hands on his hips. ‘Stay indoors, I tell thee,’ he says. ‘And you, Mother, stay in bed.’

Raghnailt throws the sheepskin off and faces him. ‘Am I not allowed to move around the place?’ she says. ‘Must I spend my last years in bed when I should be caring for the sick around me? They are our kin, too, if you have forgotten?’