So, Salma walked alone, the wind stinging her eyes. Up here in the mountains, it was already autumn. She was by herself and it felt as if it were a weaker position. From the beginning, she had been the one who had cared the most about visiting the grave. The others were never as keen; she was leading them, but they did not want to be led, or perhaps there were places to which you could not lead others, at least not the whole way. Perhaps she was being unfair. Moni and Iman had done their best. She walked faster but was suddenly vulnerable to anxieties. What if she got lost? What if she got hurt all alone in the middle of nowhere? The more she walked, the more she doubted herself. What if she had already passed the grave?

The road went on, the views of mountains and gullies, brambles and bracken, burns flowing, marshes that were in every shade of brown. The last stretch would always be the most difficult, the longest, accompanied by silence, too late for enthusiasm, too late for change of any kind. She must keep going.

She was tired too, she had to admit. Her knees were beginning to ache, her back a little stiff. She did not want to stop and stretch, nor eat a snack. She did not want to risk losing momentum, giving up like the others had given up. Come on, come on, you are nearly there, one last push. It would have been better if David had come with her. He would not have left her alone. He would have stayed with her until the very end. She should have thought of this – a trip for the two of them, a couple. Instead of the whole trouble with the women’s group, instead of Moni and Iman. She missed him and suddenly she could make Glenuaig Lodge in the distance and soon, very soon, there would be the grave up on the hill.

Up on the left, she spotted the two gravestones, the taller one that belonged to Toby Sladen, Lady Evelyn’s grandson, and then the shorter, older, broken one. It was a steep climb and she scrambled through stalks and brambles. She had made it, she had found it and here she was.

‘Lady Evelyn Cobbold, 1867–1963, Daughter of the 7th Earl of Dunmore, Widow of John Dupuis Cobbold.’