There was a little silence and I did not need to read the guilden’s mind to know that he was trying to decide whether he should apologise for mentioning Rushton. Like many others, he had witnessed the cold brusqueness with which the master of Obernewtyn had treated me the last time he had been in the mountains, and now imagined I was dreading his return. If I did not so dislike speaking of emotional matters, I would have told him that Rushton had never ceased loving me, that he had behaved as he had done because he had been tortured and manipulated by Ariel into seeing me as his enemy.

A grim picture rose in my mind of the dark, echoing Beforetime compound under Ariel’s residence on Norseland where I had sat on a cold floor holding a bloody and battered Rushton in my arms.

‘Elspeth?’ Ceirwan asked, his dark-blue eyes compassionate.

I mastered myself, and managed to say calmly, ‘Light the lanterns for me, will you? Perhaps I could eat something.’

The guilden looked pleased. ‘Ye might have a slice of the loaf that Freya just baked. It is very good.’

‘Freya cooked?’ I asked in surprise, for the kitchen master’s possessiveness of his kitchens was as well known as his choleric temperament.

Ceirwan grinned. ‘Javo was nowt happy with the idea of someone cooking what they liked in his kitchen until Freya pointed out that her Talent would make all of his workers better at their jobs. Which of course it did. Not a pot was burned nor a sauce spoiled all afternoon.’ He smiled. ‘She dinna have to do anything to help people wi’ her Talent, ye ken. She just has to be around.’

‘Why does she want to cook?’ I asked. I did not mind preparing food when I was on expeditions away from Obernewtyn, but I would never actively seek out the task.

The guilden shrugged. ‘She used to cook for her father afore she came here. She says it is as much an art as singin’ in its way.’ He paused and then began to stoke the fire. ‘We have been thinkin’ that we might build a little cottage just outside the walls of Obernewtyn once we have bonded. Freya could have her own garden an’ kitchen.’

I stared at him. ‘Live somewhere other than Obernewtyn?’ I asked.

He flushed a little and did not speak again until he had lit the lantern hanging on a hook by the mantelpiece. Then he straightened and met my eyes. ‘We would still be part of Obernewtyn.’ He moved to the lamp on the bedside table and added, ‘Ye ken others will do the same once Obernewtyn becomes a settlement.’