There was a moment’s silence. Abi took a deep breath. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. I have to stand up for myself. It just shows, doesn’t it, what men do to us women if we’re not careful.’

Cal sat down opposite Abi again, studying her face with care. ‘Talk to Ben about all this. He is a genuinely good man. He’s very experienced in counselling people. I know it’s trendy to denounce counsellors but some of them do an awful lot of good.’

Abi nodded. ‘I will. I’ll ring him now.

Mora was standing lost in thought. It had happened before, this strange feeling that she had slipped somehow into another world. Lost in her own meditations, alone as she walked the fields and hills, or sat beside the waters of the fen, listening to the soft whisperings of the reed beds she would suddenly be aware of other people nearby. Other people in another world; not nature spirits, not gods, not souls of the ancestors, people just like her, going about their own business, unaware of her. Until now. Now there was another woman there in that world. A woman who had looked up and seen her. She was half afraid, half intrigued. This was a special place, a place where physical worlds conjoined, the territories of three tribes, all neighbours, all respectfully standing back from this sacred place; a place where past, present and future too overlapped and interlocked and the border between them was thin. That was why there was a college here; that was why the waters and the hills and the islands were sacred. That was why the high Tor itself was entrance to the otherworld. She shook her head, looking round. The moment had lasted only a second and then it was over. She had thought of telling Cynan about it, but somehow the right moment hadn’t come. He had been more distant lately, spending more time alone in meditation on his little island across the water near the mainland. Their easy affectionate friendship had wavered and she knew why. He was jealous of all the time she was spending with Yeshua. But then her father had put Yeshua under her supervision, as a healer like her, whilst Cynan was a studying to be a seer. She shrugged. She might be destined to marry Cynan, but that did not make her his exclusive property. She liked Yeshua. She liked him very much, they had grown closer as the months passed. Perhaps she could talk to him about it. In fact she could always talk to him; he was wise and gentle and very learned, even if from time to time he, like her, exploded with rage and frustration at the iniquities of the world around them.

She always knew where to find him. He was sitting in his accustomed place beneath the ancient yew tree which overhung the spring. He was often there, praying. He prayed more than anyone she knew. For a moment she studied his face. In repose like this, eyes closed, he radiated a serenity she found strangely disturbing. It excluded her so completely.

‘Were you looking for me?’ His eyes were still full of that other-worldliness as he registered her presence.

‘I wanted to talk to you about someone I’ve just seen.’

He raised an eyebrow, patting the ground beside him. She subsided onto the grass and sat cross-legged. ‘Someone special?’

She nodded. She never needed to explain with him. ‘I don’t know if she is a spirit or a ghost. There is something strange about her. I see her as if through clear water, in the distance. But today she was closer and our eyes met and I felt her reach out to me.’

He sat in silence for a while, staring out across the slopes of the hill below them. Two women were collecting late apples in baskets in the sunlight; she could hear their voices in the silence.

‘If she is reaching out to you, you should go to meet her,’ he said at last.

She nodded and waited in case he was going to say anything else. He too was watching the women with their baskets of fruit. ‘I need to go across to see Petronilla,’ she said at last, letting the subject drop. ‘I wondered if you would like to come and meet her and her family? Her brother was here. He left a message for me.’

‘Of course.’ He rose to his feet.

‘Where were you just now?’ She hadn’t moved.

He smiled. ‘Sometimes, when I pray for my family, I feel I can see them all there, at home. I like to check up on them. My mother and father; my brothers and sisters; touch each one on the hand.’

‘You are homesick.’ She smiled sadly.

‘A little, perhaps. I have been away a long time.’

‘You said you had to go back soon?’ She rose to her feet, clutching her cloak around her as the wind rose and snatched back her hood.

He shrugged, then nodded. ‘I had thought maybe I could take another year for my studies, but now suddenly I can feel -’ He paused, looking up at her. ‘I can feel the appointed time for me to go drawing near.’

Her heart sank. She was still studying his face. ‘And that frightens you, doesn’t it?’

He sighed. ‘God thinks I am ready.’

‘You talk about your god with my father.’

He nodded again and this time she saw the humour she loved so much surface in his eyes. ‘Your father is a learned man. That is why I came here, to study with him. His reputation has spread far across the continents. I enjoy my discussions with him. He tells me the legends of your peoples and your gods, and I tell him about the Torah, the written law and teaching of my people, the Jews. It was he who suggested that I come out here to pray alone in the sacred places of your tribe.’

‘But you do not pray to our gods.’

He shook his head. ‘My God doesn’t allow us to pray to other gods; but your father sees aspects of my great God everywhere and in everything around him. In this sacred spring; in this tree; in birds of the air; in the mountains and the hills in the storm. Where he sees gods, I see angels, caring for my father’s world. So we can talk.’ Rising to his feet, he smiled again. ‘Come, let’s go and see Petronilla. This is the child you mentioned, with the swollen joints? You have tried willow bark, of course?’

Mora punched him affectionately on the arm. ‘Of course I have tried willow bark. My medicines are the best for miles around and they work for her, that was why Romanus came to fetch me. Medicine was sent back with him, and Addedomaros promised I would go and see her as soon as I could, but I thought, maybe…’ She hesitated. ‘Maybe if you came with me, you could ask your God to heal her?’

He folded his arms. ‘Yours don’t help, then?’ He raised an eyebrow humorously.

She shrugged, refusing to rise to the bait. ‘Don’t or won’t. Who can understand why they heal one person and not another? But it occurred to me that Petra’s parents come from Rome. Maybe your God would help them.’

He gave a snort. ‘Rome is not considered a friend in my country.’

‘But Lydia and Gaius have chosen to settle with us; they have the protection of my people. You will like this family, I promise.’

‘I’m sure I will.’ He reassured her. ‘And I will do what I can, Mora. I always do, no matter from where they come or what their beliefs -’ He broke off as Cynan appeared, climbing the hillside, through the blowing leaves, the patterns of sunlight reflecting on his woollen robe.

He paused and looked at them. ‘Am I interrupting?’

‘Of course not!’ Mora could feel herself blushing as she stepped away from Yeshua. Why did Cynan always make her feel guilty when he caught them alone together?

‘I heard you might be going across to see Petra’s family. If so I was going to offer to come with you. I can distract young Romanus from making sheep’s eyes at you while you talk to her.’

Mora hesitated. It was Yeshua who stepped back. ‘I think it would actually be better if you two went. I have work to do on my hut. It needs substantial repairs before the storms you have warned me about begin. Even if I am no longer here, someone will want my house and I wouldn’t want to leave them a ruin.’ He smiled.

‘But you were going to help me with Petra!’ Mora couldn’t keep the disappointment out of her voice.

‘I will pray for her. And there will be other times when I can come and see her. I have arranged for one of the wattle men to show me how you weave your walls. It fascinates me and my house is full of holes!’ He laughed. ‘I know. But I enjoy working with my hands. I used to watch the builders working near our home when I was a boy; my father is a master mason and woodworker.’ He was already moving away from them. He raised his hand in blessing and began to stride down the hillside.

Mora turned away from Cynan with a frown. ‘You just can’t resist it, can you!’

‘What?’

‘You hear I am going out to visit patients with Yeshua and you have to interfere! Are you jealous or something?’

Cynan looked at the ground. His face had turned puce. He shook his head. ‘Of course not. I’m sorry. I didn’t realise he would change his mind if I came too. I’ll go after him if you like and say I’m not coming.’

‘No!’ She shook her head. ‘No, don’t bother.’

‘Is he really leaving soon?’ He looked at her anxiously.

She nodded. Taking a deep breath she made herself smile. ‘As it happens he looked as though he was quite pleased to stay behind. I’ll go and fetch my bag of medicines then you can paddle the dugout for me.’ Relenting, she caught his arm. ‘You’re right. Romanus is beginning to be a bit of a pain. He’s growing up and noticing women for the first time. I just wish it wasn’t me! Take him away and teach him to fish or something.’

Cynan laughed. ‘I think it would be a case of him teaching me. But I will do my best.’

Janet Cavendish opened the front door to Abi next morning and smiled warmly. ‘Come in, my dear. Ben is expecting you. Through there.’ She waved towards an open door before turning away and disappearing herself in the opposite direction. Abi gave a tentative knock on the door and pushed it open. ‘Ben?’