CHAPTER 7
Agnes had given me specific direction to the Pictish House, augmented with a warning never to visit.
“It’s an unchancy place,” Agnes said.
“So I’ve been told,” I agreed. “That’s why I want to visit.”
“You’ll be alone then,” Agnes said. “Nobody will accompany you.”
I did not want anybody with me. After a lifetime of being shunned and running away from people, I told myself that I preferred my own company. I had long adopted a defensive shield that some considered aloofness, never dreaming of the lonely woman inside, screaming for human companionship. Other people were unreliable; they always let me down or walked away when they discovered who I was, or rather, who I was not. Circumstances had forced me to depart from the few exceptions, those few for whom I cared.
There was
