The professor returns quickly with the tea, clearly eager to discuss his favorite subject. ‘Was there any particular period of history you were interested in?’ he asks, setting the tray down on the cluttered coffee table. ‘That map is finely drawn by a cartographer of some renown, but I have earlier renditions. Or perhaps a book would better suit your needs?’ He picks up his wire-framed reading glasses from the mantelpiece and begins to scan the nearest bookshelf. ‘I have many excellent volumes that might be of use … let me see … there’s Thomas Jones’s The Lake. An unimaginative title, I grant you, but the text is reliable. Of course, if you were looking for an emphasis on the art of the area … for your own work perhaps…?’

Tilda gives a rueful shrug. ‘To be honest, I’m not sure where to start. I.… I think I’d like to get an idea of who lived here long ago.’

‘How long, precisely?’

She tries to recall the people in the boat, to bring to mind what they were wearing, what tools or weapons they were carrying, but the recollection is unhelpfully hazy at this moment. All she can clearly see in her mind’s eye is the young woman with the animal skin hood or headdress, the leather straps on her legs. Her hair covered, more leather twists and braids … and tattoos.

Yes, she had ink!

‘Did any of the people who settled here use tattoos, do you know?’

‘Well, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that before!’ He gives a low laugh. ‘I daresay there are one or two youngsters sporting such things even now, but…’

‘These … the ones I’m interested in … they weren’t colored. Just black. Shapes, rather than objects, I think. Twisted together. Like tangled branches or vines, I suppose.’

‘Ah, that sounds very much like Celtic knot work. In which case’—he squeezes behind the sofa in order to get to another shelf—‘you could do worse than take a look at Bartlett’s Celtic Britain. He’s a little wordy’—he removes a chunky book and blows off the nonexistent dust—‘but knowledgeable. And there are illustrations aplenty.’ He takes the book to her. ‘Good references for an artist like yourself, I should imagine.’

‘Thank you,’ says Tilda, flicking through the pages, taking in glimpses of dozens of images. ‘Yes, these are just right. Exactly right.’ She browses further for a moment, and then looks at the professor, hesitating before going on. ‘The people who would have worn designs like these, when would they have lived here?’

‘Oh, that’s difficult to answer with certainty. Celtic artwork such as this was used over centuries, you see. I’d need a little more information…’

‘They had a boat, a small one, but big enough for three people.’

‘I’m sorry, who had a boat?’