Stone Circle you can't go home again

Murdock looked briefly uncertain; he wanted to say goodbye to Stephie himself, but Shale seemed ready to go, and he wasn't about to let the boy walk out of his life again. He was sick of being the odd man out, and getting in with Easthollow had proved to take more effort than Murdock had left in him.

"Will you tell her I went to visit my brother?" he requested, hoping Valette would agree and then actually follow through. (Murdock had agreed to do a great many things he never actually got around to.) "I don't want her to think I'd up and run for just anything," he explained, worried that his absence might hurt the dark girl's feelings.