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the timid Grace, a very likeable group of people, she thought, and decided that she would not demean her office as Brehon by standing around in the courtyard while the usual bustle of loading goods and mounting horses took place. She summoned the boys to make their farewells also and they did not disappoint her with their polite bows and the ease with which all, except for Finbar, were able to switch between Latin and English. She dismissed them then back to their own table with a quick nod. There was no reason why they should not quickly finish up the left-over sweetmeats while the visitors were getting going. She herself went to one of the small open windows and looked out on to the courtyard. Hans Kaufmann was already mounted on his horse, though the others had not yet arrived out.
    Mara stood at a discreet distance and observed him. Blad was not there, but his daughter Mór emerged from the stable. She took a quick glance around and then stood on her toes, leaning coquettishly on the shoulder of his horse. He stooped down, kissed her on the lips and then impulsively dismounted and took the woman in his arms. This time the kiss was very prolonged and seemed to Mara’s interested sight to be extremely passionate. She doubted that it was the first embrace and wondered about the sleeping arrangements of the night before. Still, it was none of her business and she turned away quickly before any of the boys joined her at the window. As she crossed the room towards them, she heard, through the open door in the passageway, the noise of horses’ hoofs. Hans Kaufmann could not wait to depart. He had gone ahead of his fellow pilgrims and would probably reach the coast well before the other five.
    Mara watched the boys eat for another minute. No expense had been spared on this meal. Cyprus sugar was cheap enough in Galway – she had tasted it, beautifully blended with vinegar, in one of the sauces that had accompanied the fish – but the cakes of refined sugar from which some of these sweetmeats had been made were very expensive indeed, and of course the figs, imported from somewhere in the south, would have cost Blad a good few pieces of silver. And then there would have been the cost of the transport of the sugar, and the wine, across the mountain that lay between the city and the Burren. Mara bought wine and some other luxuries from Galway, but Domhnall’s father, her daughter Sorcha’s husband, Oisín, delivered hers free whenever he had an order for goods in the neighbourhood.
    ‘Let’s go into the kitchen and thank Mór for the lovely food,’ she proposed when she saw the hand to mouth action beginning to slacken. She was meticulous about insisting on courtesy from the boys, who, if they passed all of their examinations, would have the responsibility of acting as Brehon – with all the peace-keeping and diplomatic implications of that position – and so she never passed up an opportunity to show them how to behave to others.
    In any case, she had her share of curiosity and wondered whether Mór would reveal anything about this intriguing Hans Kaufmann. How wonderful if he was to propose marriage, but Mara feared that it may not have been marriage which was on his mind.
    Mór, to her pleasure, was in great good humour, admiring how grown-up Domhnall had become since she had seen him last, flirting a little with the handsome Slevin, and trying to kiss Cormac who had often been at the inn when accompanying the king to Thomond during the summer holidays.
    ‘I’ll only put up with it if I can have a sweet pastry,’ he said with a grin, and Mara did not scold him for his outrageousness because she saw how Mór was looking for an opportunity to work off her high spirits. What had Hans Kaufmann said to her during those few minutes out in the courtyard? Had he told her that he would call in again on his way back from the Aran Islands? Or perhaps they had been together in that hour when he was missing from the table.