“Yes. I get supplies every so often from one of the brothers on Iona,” Caedmon said.

“Iona!” Alasdair said, standing up and wrapping the blanket around himself. He at least knew where Iona was, although there was a strange feeling at the back of his head, as if he wasn’t remembering something correctly. “And how far by boat is that? When will the brother arrive?”

“Oh…” Caedmon said. “Uh, on the quarter-days and cross-quarter days, usually. He last came in on Saint John’s Eve. And it’s just after Lammas…so he’ll next be in on Michaelmas.”

“So that’s a month,” Alasdair said. He looked again at the cell they were in–there was barely enough room for one of them, and he was much taller than Caedmon. Certainly there was only one pallet. And he had stolen the blanket to cover himself. It would be a very long and disagreeable month, especially with only a blanket for clothing.

"It’s fine, I can sleep in my robes,” Caedmon said before Alasdair could say anything. “I do that often in the winter. Otherwise I might wake up dead from cold. And we can split the pallet. I’ve been too vain, sleeping on such thick hay.”

"Do you not have any other clothes I could wear?” Alasdair asked.

“I’m a hermit,” Caedmon reminded him. “I’m not supposed to have a lot of clothes.”

"I can’t take your blanket!”

"Saint Martin gave his cloak to the beggar without expecting the beggar to give him anything in return,” said Caedmon, piously crossing himself. “And it’s much too cold here for you to walk about without anything on. Even if it is summer.”

"Well, what about food? I don’t want to eat you out of house and home in the meanwhile.”

"I am happy to share my bread with you, and water is in abundance.”

Alasdair groaned. The man was irritating him more and more. “How’s the fishing around here? I can at least fish for myself, and give you some.”

"I see lots of fish, and lots of sea-birds. There’s deer in the forest on the other side of the island. Once I even saw a whale, the kind of fish that ate Jonah.”

“Whales aren’t fishes,” Alasdair said. “They’re mammals.”

"They live in the sea. They’re fishes.”

"Not according to–never mind that. How long does it take the brother to arrive from Iona?”