Her gaze seemed to pass right through him. ‘Nu,’ she answered, as though the memory of it just came to her.

‘Nu?’ Ben replied, hastily reassembling his composure like the seasoned interviewer he once thought himself to be. ‘Is that short for Nuala by any chance?’

The girl shook her head and stared down towards where the recorder was hidden out of sight. She edged her feet away from it. There was no way she could have known it was there.

‘I’m going to ask you a few questions, Nu. Is that okay?’

‘Yes,’ she replied wistfully, those fiery eyes still burning a hole in Ben’s jacket. ‘That’s okay.’

‘Is it true that nobody in your village ever leaves?’

‘Who’s nobody?’

It was with that response Ben realised that maybe youth and innocence weren’t the answers to his problems.

‘I mean, sorry, let me rephrase that. Do any of the villagers, like you, ever leave Tír Mallacht?’

‘Like me? No.’

‘And why is that?’ Ben asked, silently pleading for an answer.

‘Why would I leave?’ she responded. ‘I don’t look right. I would never be chosen.’

Ben had hoped that, given her society, her appearance would have exerted less influence over her happiness in life. But the poor woman had obviously been made more than aware of it by those who populated her tiny, curious world.

Ben felt horrible for having asked her to remove the hood. He counted himself lucky that Aoife had been born without any complications. Jess and her family might have pinned his absenteeism on that reason alone, as though he had ordered a child and didn’t like the look of her when she arrived. It wouldn’t have diminished his love for her. Ben was better than that, or so he liked to believe.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, resolving to steer the conversation elsewhere. ‘We can talk about something else.’

‘Okay.’

‘Is there anything you would like to talk about?’

That familiar hush retuned to the stable. Keep it going, Benny Boy.

‘Were there any stories that you were told when you were a child?’

Nu shook her head and peered up at the ceiling as though the whole interview process wasn’t holding her interest.

‘Is there anything that you’re afraid of, Nu?’ he asked, playing a wildcard question to lure back her attention.

‘What are you afraid of?’ she parried.

Ben mused over the question for a moment. ‘I don’t think I’m afraid of anything, Nu.’

‘That must be nice.’

‘I suppose it is,’ he agreed.

‘You should leave here.’

‘Why do you think I should leave?’ Ben asked, surprised by the sudden solemnness of her voice.