Ann didn’t allow him to finish. ‘At least when Ursula was here, I could talk to her about it.’ She stopped, and her voice softened. ‘And I spoke to Finlay, of course. He was the only one who really understood, especially after fighting at Ypres. He knew what it was like not to be able to forget things he had seen and heard, even when that was all he wanted in the world.’ Ann stood up quickly and walked to the door. ‘I am going out. I cannot bear to be in this place for another minute.’

Before Keith knew what was happening, she was gone. Her shoes clattered along the tiled floor in the hall, and he heard the front door slam. He rushed through to the drawing room just in time to see her march out of the gate, leaving it to swing in the wind. She had grabbed the Fair Isle hat she had knitted for him off the hall table on her way past, and her hair was shoved haphazardly underneath it with just a few straggly locks trailing. If she had been going any faster, she would have been sprinting.

Chapter 45

October 1931

Keith was sitting at the kitchen table when Isobel returned from helping Agnes. She dumped her basket of groceries on the table beside him.

‘I thought I’d go to the shops since I was out already. Is Ann in? I need to ask her about the baking for tomorrow.’

‘She is not.’

Isobel began to unpack the brown paper bags. ‘I was thinking I might make sly cakes. It seems like the right thing, under the circumstances.’ She reached up to the high mantelshelf and took down the well-used copy of Allinson’s Cookery Book. ‘I was looking through this last night for inspiration and found the recipe. I used to make them for Ann and Finlay when they were younger. They called them fly cakes. I thought I might put some in the oven this afternoon so you and Rab can test them out and give your approval.’ She turned around to find Keith with his head in his hands.

‘Or I might not, of course.’ She put the book down on the table. ‘Keith?’

There was no reply.

‘Keith?’ She was alarmed now. ‘Has something happened? Is Rab alright? Is it Ann?’

He looked up at her with red-rimmed eyes. ‘I don’t know. I was trying to help and it all went wrong and she stormed off and I don’t know where she’s gone. She was not right.’

‘Not right?’

‘I’m frightened for her. And I should have gone after her and I didn’t and now I don’t know what to do.’

‘Tell me. Tell me everything.’

Keith took a deep breath. ‘Have you seen her looking in a mirror lately?’