‘I meant that it mun have been hard fer Elspeth,’ Ceirwan explained gently. ‘She had to walk away without saying a word to you or to any of us. When I think back on those last days afore she left, I sensed there were somethin’ weighing on her heart, but she was never one to invite personal questions. And then other times I thought I mun be mistaken, fer she seemed so happy.’

‘She seemed so to me as well, and she spoke with such certainty of the time we would have together on the journey to the Red Land, as if she looked forward to it as eagerly as I did. It is hard to believe that she knew she would never set foot on the ships.’

‘Elspeth was no liar,’ Freya said with conviction. ‘I think if she had known she must leave before the ships departed, she would not have mentioned the journey. Maybe she did not know it till the last minute.’

‘I would like to believe that,’ Rushton said, ‘yet in the end it does not matter whether she lied or not, or why. She is gone.’

‘It matters,’ Freya said.

Ceirwan said earnestly, ‘Rushton, surely ye ken that Elspeth loved ye no less than ye love her. I dinna doubt that she suffers right now, even as you do. In fact it may be that her sufferin’ is the greater because it was she who had to leave you without a word.’

‘Am I to be soothed by the thought of her sorrow?’ Rushton asked, and there was pain and anger in his voice. He looked down so that I saw his hands, clenched into fists on the table. ‘Perhaps the worst thing to know is that even if she had told me what she must do and sworn she loved me with all her heart and did not want to leave me, still she would have gone. Nothing I could do or say would have stopped her.’

‘Then maybe this, however painful, was the better way,’ Freya said, reaching out to lay her smaller hand over Rushton’s. He looked up into her kind face. ‘You are strong and great-hearted, Rushton. I knew it the first time I saw you ride up on your horse, when you spoke to my father and bade him sell me to you. And because of that, you will do what you must do even as she does.’

‘I will,’ Rushton said, on an outward rush of air. ‘Lud help me, I will do my duty.’ Then he drew a long breath. ‘Forgive me, I am full of self-pity tonight.’

‘No,’ Freya said. ‘You grieve for something precious taken from you, as she must grieve.’