At day’s end, I make my way back to Dungsbrook. The Recitations melt together into one lumpen bit inside my head, but the tastes of other folk’s sins are still on my breath. Bitter greens for not saying prayers. Barley grains for cursing. Stewed gurnards for tale bearing. Hippocras for drunkenness. They make me feel melancholic and gassy. My neck aches. I want my rug by the fire. I want to sleep.

As I get close to home, the smells of burning rubbish and shit and woad overcome the tastes in my mouth until all that’s there is the Dungsbrook reek. At least the sins are gone. Mayhap Dungsbrook has a useful side.

Brida’s on my rug when I arrive. Paul stands before a low fire, wrapping his rags around him like he means to go out. I suppose hog boons and goblins keep their wanderings to the night.

He gets still when I come in but doesn’t look to see who it is. Then he goes on dressing, taking care with each fold and wrap of the fabric. It takes a moment to realize he cares what he looks like. A vain monster! I laugh so loud Paul jumps. He recovers, wraps his face hastily, and hurries out of the door.

‘Tsk,’ Brida clucks at me from the rug by the hearth. Mayhap she doesn’t find it comical.

For the first time, I take the ladder to the loft, though the climbing pulls on the stitches in my neck. I look about. There’s shelves with wooden boxes on them all up and down a wall, and, thank the Maker, a mattress. It’s been a good long while since I slept on one. I drop onto it, pretending I can’t smell that the ticking’s gone too long unchanged.

But tired as I am, sleep won’t come. My mind is aflutter with pictures and thoughts. Why did Black Fingers knife me? Is he the witch who killed Corliss? Did he plant the deer heart on her coffin? All I know is that he hurt me because I spoke out about a murder. To stay safe, I must keep silent.

A slice of moonlight comes in through the shutter. In its dim light, the wooden boxes on the shelves look like overlarge bricks. One box sits open at the foot of the mattress. I pull it into the moonlight for a look.