I lift up the shining fish. ‘Enough for three,’ I tell him. The invitation to supper is as much a challenge as an offer of hospitality. I do not fight for his company only for myself now. I know that Wenna and Rhodri do their best to find ways to keep him from us.

He steadies the boat while I climb out. ‘If it can be served without a helping of rancor I will join you,’ he says. When I do not answer, he regrets his words and leans close as I tie the boat to its stake. He nuzzles my neck. ‘Time spent with you is ever more memorable than time spent elsewhere.’

I push him away, more playful than sulking. ‘Is my cooking so exceptional?’

‘It is not,’ he concedes. ‘So it is a mystery why I cannot stay from you without feeling hungry.’ He grabs me again and nips at my ear, jiggling Tanwen as she sits in the crook of his arm, making us both smile.

He picks a bluebell for her, handing her the pretty flower before he sits our child in his saddle, and we walk side by side as he leads the horse slowly back to my house. When I have rekindled the fire and set the fish to cook, he takes something from his saddlebag and offers it to me. It is a small object, wrapped in a piece of cloth. The wrapping itself is so carefully stitched, worked in patterns of animals with thread of gold and red and blue, that I am content to admire it without giving in to my curiosity over what it conceals.

‘This is beautiful indeed, my prince. There is silk here, is there not?’

He smiles. ‘The cloth is for you, my seer. A token of my love. A keepsake. Its contents are for Tanwen.’

I unfold the silky needlework and take out a smooth, heavy piece of gold, the glint of which causes me to gasp. It is a torc, fashioned with such care and artistry, I have not seen its like in my life. It bears carvings showing two running hares and a hound. Their legs, tails and heads are entwined and twisted, so that they continue on and on, with no beginning or end.

‘Oh.’ I find my voice at last, turning the torc over in my hand, marveling at it. ‘My prince, such a gift…’

‘It pleases you?’

I look up at him and his face is that of a young boy, desperate for praise, so eager to please, his expression moves me more than I dare tell him. I smile and nod, and he leans over me, pointing.

‘Here, this hare, that is you, see the lithe limbs and the look of courage greater than on the face of any warrior? This smaller one, that is our little witch, springing forward into life.’

‘And the hound who would have us for his dinner?’