Um, why a mysterious shepherd in a stone college?

I don't know.

I mean, um, I remember my mentor was, was Madeleine L'Engle, the wonderful writer, and, and she said that, that characters would just appear on the page, and they would just come into the novel, and you'd, the author would sort of look at the page and say, "What are you doing here?" So I really don't re- I don't even remember the genesis of when he first came.

I didn't know who he was.

Um, I had no idea, um, as, as, as we do not, as we read the book, as Emily sometimes does not know if he is entirely real.

Um, he's there.

Um, the cottage, the, well, the cottage, she first discovers when she's a little girl.

Absolutely.