‘Well, you said that Rab might need somewhere to stay soon, so if he took one of the other rooms and if you include Keith, that’s four lodgers.’

‘We would offer Rab a room too?’

‘Why not?’ Ann saw that Isobel hadn’t even considered this as a possibility. She left the suggestion to settle. ‘It was your idea to set the rent as a quarter of earnings, and you were right, Keith is starting to agitate about how much he will pay once the decorating is done.’

‘Even though the two of you are . . .?’

‘He is happy to not pay anything at the moment while the work is still going on, but he is determined to pay after it’s finished.’ Ann frowned. ‘I will find a way around it, trust me.’

‘I hate to say it, but I told you this would happen . . .’

‘You did.’ Ann pointed a finger at Isobel. ‘So, I’ve been thinking that we could use your plan.’

‘Mine?’

‘You thought of it, not me. A quarter of earnings for the rent and the food. And at the end of two years, I give it all back to them. And it would be our secret, yours and mine. The lodgers wouldn’t find out until the day they leave.’

‘Food as well? Are you sure? Groceries aren’t given away in the shops for free.’

‘I think we can manage. As you said, it’s Finlay’s legacy. The house would have been part of his inheritance, if he had ever come home.’ Ann looked back down the garden towards the kitchen, past the washing blowing gently on the line. ‘I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to lock the back door, but he’s gone. However much I want the impossible to happen, it isn’t going to. I know that, deep down. Maybe it’s time to find a different way of remembering him.’

Chapter 42

October 1931

The letter was delivered on Monday morning. Black ink, scribed on a small envelope, the paper stiff with prosperity. Isobel picked it up off the doormat and studied the handwriting.

Not elderly, but they are uncertain about the address, she reasoned. And there was something about the E for Edinburgh that was familiar. She placed the envelope carefully on the hall table with the other post, and stepped over the canvas rucksacks and abandoned walking boots which had been deposited in the hall the evening before by Keith and Ann, so urgent was their need for sleep.