Cwen exhales deeply, ruffling the water between her and the people opposite. She pushes the rain clouds away to other people’s islands.

The sky says it will be a fine day for weeping.

I ask for silence to recount our history, the first I remember ... I remember nine homes, nine wooded rooms, a wise bright tree ... There was no sand or sea, no ice-cold waves. There was no earth, no sky; but Sun shone from the south ... Sun knew not what temples she had, Moon knew not his power, The stars knew not their place ... Three women, all-powerful, came here ... They made laws, selected life, and children’s destiny. So I saw into all worlds And described my vision.

Anon, Völuspá: Seeress’s Prophecy (Old Norse), first written down in Iceland or the Hebrides, AD 1220

7
Camille

The moment Eva vanished, that very instant almost, several other things became clear.

The headline discovery was that Seb’s brothers had it in their hearts to shut Zoe out of the family.

Dr Camille Senghor, the woman Sebastian married, by contrast, revealed herself to be an ally.

She befriended Zoe.

The loss of Harcourt House – during the inquiry the value was put at £2 million, but that’s not including the island of Cwen, the land in the north, nor the chattels – turned Eva’s sons into enraged demons. To Camille, it was a relief.

JUDGE: I would like to thank you for taking the time and making the effort to appear before this inquiry. You have done so voluntarily. You have also provided a witness statement. Your perspectives are particularly helpful because you came to these islands as an outsider. You never had any financial or professional involvement with Eva’s work, and yet you knew its ramifications and effects. Am I right?

CAMILLE: Yes.

JUDGE: What I would like to examine today is your submission that, contrary to the claims made by her sons—

CAMILLE: Her two elder sons, Henry and George.

JUDGE: That’s right.

CAMILLE: Not Sebastian.

JUDGE: Exactly, her two elder sons, who have claimed that their mother, Eva, was exploited by a ‘cabal of manipulative island women’. In paragraph 4, you state—

CAMILLE: Eva was motivated by her own opinions. She had beliefs about the world and its necessary direction which her sons may not have noticed. [Pause] I would like to add that, personally, I am so sad to have lost her.