I knew that Rushton was ambivalent about the fact that his defective halfbrother dwelt with Enoch on his remote highland farm. Reluctantly, he had permitted Gevan to erase his halfbrother’s memories of his time with Alexi and Madam Vega, after Roland and Kella argued that the wrong the older man had witnessed during this period lay at the core of his festering and irrational horror of Misfits. The coercive treatment had eased the older man’s fits of madness and violence, but it transpired that Obernewtyn itself had been a constant reminder of what had been removed, so that being there unsettled his mind. It had been Louis Larkin who had suggested Stephen might be better away from Obernewtyn, and he had proposed Enoch’s farm. The old coachman’s infrequent early reports made it clear that his guest was happier and far calmer on the farm than he had been at Obernewtyn and that his nightmares about the past came only very occasionally instead of every other night. More recent reports indicated that Stephen Seraphim and Enoch had become good friends, but still the matter troubled Rushton.

As if he had overheard his halfbrother’s name, Rushton came over to us. Linnet and Gevan followed, arguing yet again about the need for the coercer-knights to be recognised as a separate guild.

‘We were just talking about the possibility that Stephen Seraphim might come up for the moon fair if Enoch does,’ Brydda told Rushton, his booming voice drowning out the coercers’ argument.

‘I hope he will,’ Rushton said. ‘In truth, I wish he might live here again, for is not this his home even more than it is mine? He was born here and I was born and grew up elsewhere.’

‘He’ll nowt come, lad,’ said Louis Larkin, who had ambled over to us with Grufyyd and had heard his words. ‘Stephen is content where he is an’ a man dinna leave contentment unless he is a fool.’

‘Obernewtyn was his before it was mine,’ Rushton said tersely.

‘Much good it ever did him,’ Gevan said impatiently. ‘You know yourself he would never have had the wit to run it, Rushton. The weight of even the pretence of it cracked his mind as much as the things that foul Alexi did and had him do with that harpy who worked with him.’

‘Besides, in a very short time, Obernewtyn will not belong to anyone,’ Brydda pointed out cheerfully.

At that moment another carriage came rattling up the curved drive and we all turned in surprise to watch it approach, for all carriages and wagons arriving with moon fair visitors were directed by a sign just above the pass to enter by the farm gate. That the wagon had come in the front entrance meant it came on Obernewtyn business. But neither Jil nor Alden had sent any word about the carriage or its inhabitants, which meant the visitors were known or at least harmless.