When the Littles passed, Maria greeted the new doctor. His girlfriend barely looked up. Her cheeks flushed pink and she looked like a deer trapped in headlights. It made the contrast with Iona, who was stepping off the boat behind her, even starker.

‘Mrs Harvey?’ the student asked, holding out her hand. She had long eyelashes and a short shock of brown hair that had been shaped into a pixie cut. It suited her small face perfectly, though the hair looked a shade too dark for her pale skin. She pushed her sunglasses on top of her head and Maria was taken aback by the brightness and intensity of the girl’s green eyes. ‘I’m Iona. I’m here for my sandwich year.’

‘A sandwich year?’ Maria asked, shaking her hand and smiling at the young girl’s warmth.

‘It’s a year out of my degree,’ Iona said. ‘I’m studying geography, hence …’ She waved her arm about her. ‘Your island looks beautiful.’

‘Thank you.’ Maria beamed. ‘It is.’

Maria watched her stride off towards the village, only spotting Annie Webb when the girl was out of sight.

‘So that’s the lot then?’ Annie asked.

Maria nodded and let out a breath. ‘Seems like it.’

‘And how are you, Stella?’ Annie said, turning to Stella who was now leaping up into David’s struggling arms. ‘You’re too big for your father to lift any more. You shouldn’t be doing that at eleven. Eleven,’ she repeated, shaking her head. ‘I remember the moment you were born.’

‘You were the first person to see my face,’ Stella grinned.

‘I was,’ Annie said, ‘and your mother was lucky I was here. There was no chance of you making it to the mainland. Not like your brother, of course, who didn’t want to come out.’

‘Danny made something cool for the treehouse,’ Stella said at the mention of her brother. ‘It’s a wooden chest. I can put my notebooks and pens in it so I don’t have to keep taking them up there.’

‘Danny made that?’ Maria asked. ‘That’s lovely.’

‘That boy’s always been good with his hands,’ Annie murmured as David called out that he’d see them all later.

Maria turned from Annie to wave. Her husband looked guarded as he pulled in the rope for a quick turn-around, but she knew why. He wouldn’t like the fact she and Annie were watching the newcomers with such interest, but David was wrong to think it was Annie who disliked change. Annie was the one who made her feel better about it.