Annie cheered him immediately. She was an energetic, middle-aged woman with short grey hair who had the competent, efficient air of a nurse. Making sure that the manager had gone, she sat down and stretched her tired feet in front of her, grateful for the unexpected rest. She spoke with a north-country accent.

“Sally was a quiet girl, hard-working. She’d come with good references from a big hotel in Scotland, but she had no airs and graces. The residents didn’t take to her, you know, as they did to some of the girls, because she didn’t push herself forward, she didn’t make any effort to be friendly to them. But she was a good worker. We missed her when she left.”

“Did she have any boyfriends? Perhaps among the guests. Did she talk about anyone special?”

“No. I’d never seen her with a boy. That’s why I was so surprised when she left like that. We didn’t have any idea. She always went away from the island on her days off, but she said that she was exploring. Walking, you know. She was that type of girl. Quiet, reserved. That’s why we were all so shocked.”

“Shocked?”

“Aye. When we realized she was expecting. She started to be late coming down in the mornings, and one of the other girls found her being sick. I think she was hoping, you know, that it wasn’t true, but she had to believe it in the end. It’s happening all the time here, though you’d think these days they’d have more sense. But I never would have expected it of Sal.”

“And did she never mention anybody who could have been the father? Anybody at all?”

“I remember, the day just before she left—she went quite suddenly without telling anybody. He—” she pointed to the desk where George sat—“ he was furious. Well the day before, she went to a party on St. Mary’s. She worked herself into a terrible state about it because she was supposed to be working that night, and none of the girls would swap with her. She was so upset that I let her go in the end. She’d have been no use at work. I suppose it was expecting that was making her so depressed. One of the girls asked her about the party. You know how malicious these girls can be. They were teasing her about some man they’d seen her with, and to stop them Sally told them about the party. It wasn’t an islander who was giving it, it was a birdwatcher. You know, they all come to the islands in the autumn.”

“Do you know his name?”

She shook her head regretfully. “I remember that she stayed out all night. I was worried about her because she’d been so depressed. She got the first boat back the next morning. Then she must have packed up all her stuff. She left that day. I never saw her again.”

“And she never got in touch? You didn’t know what had happened to her?”