‘I will not stay here and eat,’ he said brusquely. ‘I will ride down to look at the place where my brother was treacherously slain.’ His tone suggested that the treachery had been mine, but I merely nodded blandly and, after a slight hesitation, he turned on his heel and stalked back down the knoll.

‘A tense man,’ Iriny observed mildly, as we watched the tribesman march across the meadow to get Falada and lead her back along the stream toward the road. The gypsy was regarding me quizzically, but before I could say a word, the coercer, a cheerful woman called Jil, came out of the hut and called a greeting to me.

‘I thought I heard voices. I am making porridge if you have not eaten, Guildmistress. We have grains and flour enough, but sadly there is not a nut or a dribble of honey in the hut to sweeten it.’ In answer I gave the pack to her, saying she might find something in it to add to the meal. She brightened then hesitated and asked, ‘Will you not come inside? It is chilly out here. I can go up and sit with Alden in the watchtower if you need privacy.’

‘I do not wish to drive you out, especially when you are preparing a firstmeal feast for us,’ I said with a smile. ‘But perhaps you have something hot for us to drink out here while we wait and talk?’

She grinned almost mischievously. ‘I have just the thing.’ She vanished inside and then came out almost at once with two mugs. I was startled to smell the rich, sweet odour of Sadorian choca and guessed it had been filched by one of the coercers from Javo’s store. There would be hell to pay when the irascible kitchen master discovered its loss, but I was too greedy to protest.

Iriny came to the porch to accept the proffered mug and sipped at the brown liquid in it with slight suspicion. Then her eyes widened in startled appreciation and she drank the rest quickly, despite the heat of it. Jil grinned triumphantly at me and went back inside.

We sat on the bottom step of the porch.

‘I never did get the chance to thank you for the help you gave me with Domick on the west coast,’ I said, ‘or apologise for abandoning you when you were taken prisoner. Rolf promised he would see you free but if it had not been so needful to get Domick out of Halfmoon Bay, I never would have left it to him.’

‘The fools did not manage to hold me long enough for anyone to rescue me,’ Iriny said scornfully. Then her expression changed. ‘I liked Rolf. It is good that they made him a chieftain.’

I thought of the big, dark-haired blacksmith with his crippled leg. ‘I do not think he had any expectation of it. Indeed, he argued against it.’