leave. “Hey,” said Owen, who saw the action. “What was that, where do you think you’re going?” The woman turned back to speak, ending the drinker’s amusement in the space of a heartbeat. “T’is true Mr Owen sir, we don’t have insurance like you folks do. We’re of a different ilk, your people and mine.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Owen puzzled, pulling a comically confused face, yet nobody laughed. “It means, Mr Owen sir, that we have our own ways of claiming insurance, our own ways of collecting on a debt. Your lad knew who threw that stone and yet won’t tell, so I’ll hold him, and your family, accountable for the crime. I only need a name, and now I have yours. Goodnight Mr Owen, sir.” She turned back and marched towards the door, with Owen shouting from his place behind the bar. “Hey, come back here now and tell me what that’s supposed to mean?” At the entrance, she paused and said loud enough for all to hear, “Enjoy your beer, gentlemen,” and then laughed as she closed the door. “Bloody Gypos!” Owen declared, and the spell was broken. Amid the relieved laughter at what happened, a few of the men took drafts from their beer, and then promptly spat them out. “What the hell are you lot doing?” Owen shouted. Confused, one of the men looked at his glass and said, “Ere, Owen, my beer’s gone off!” “Mine too,” said another. “And mine,” a third said. Taking a swig of his own glass, Owen spat it out. “What the hell ...?” But Dafydd knew what had happened, the old woman was a witch, he was sure, and she’d done something. Trembling, he inspected his own glass before putting it down and running upstairs to his room. He slammed the door shut and marched over to close the curtains, the mental picture of the old woman’s undamaged eye staring at him balefully foremost in his thoughts. A scuffling at the window stopped him in his tracks. His hand went involuntarily to his mouth as he gasped in shock at what was on the other side of the window pane. Standing on the windowsill, staring at him intently with only one eye, was the crow.
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