That seemed to be confirmation enough. He ground his jaw and inhaled deeply through his nose.

Madeleine began, “Connor⁠—”

“Do you lot think we’re stupid?”

The words burst out of him in a roar, and Madeleine gasped. Connor held up his free hand, palm facing forward, to silence her. “Come on! She washes up on shore, starkers and beaten half to death, and Jonathan gives this cock-and-bull story about her being his long-lost daughter? This isn’t Coronation Street.”

“Um—well⁠—”

“We all knew something was off straightaway. Sue Kilbright told Iona Darrow how fast the lass healed up before Jon hustled her away. And then Eileen McKay talks about how he came to her asking for a bloody birth certificate because Hæra was born ‘off the grid,’ and she let him have one because she didn’t see the harm and she was glad he was doing better now. Christ!”

The Great Mare hadn’t exactly given Madeleine a script for this. “I don’t⁠—”

“Oh, and she’s strong as Superman. Harry Duggan told everyone how she scooped you up when you fell. More than that too. You think Jim and I worked here for years and never once noticed how fuck-off hay bales got moved, but nobody’d been using the machines?”

Hæra had been so careful not to be seen. Apparently she’d never worried about the evidence afterward. To be fair, neither had Madeleine. She’d thought that if Hæra had gotten away with it for five years, it must be working.

It hadn’t occurred to her that Hæra wasn’t getting away with it.

“And storms came and we got away with nary a scratch. Until now.” Connor ran an agitated hand over his hair. “I knew something had changed as soon as I got here and saw the damage. Now she and Jonathan are nowhere to be found.”

Silence fell. Madeleine searched for an excuse or explanation she could give. There was none.

“And you never said anything?” she eventually asked. “You just kept working here?” That might be just as strange as Hæra’s true nature. If you thought something supernatural was afoot, wouldn’t you want to avoid it?

Madeleine’s own case to the contrary.

“Me and Jim like her,” Connor said, to her astonishment. “She works hard. Keeps herself to herself. Everyone says she turned Jon around, and he’s got a heart as big as the sky. They’re good folk. The farm’s a good place.”

The last part, Madeleine understood. She’d loved Ætlaquoy from the moment she’d set foot on it. It just felt good. Was that the trow’s now-lost magic, or something to do with the love Hæra and Jonathan had put into the land?

“You don’t ask questions of their sort,” Connor added. “Whatever she is.”