When Colin Grieves, acting press adviser to the Archipelago Council, made the announcement, his forehead broke into a sweat, his freshly ironed shirt developed damp patches, his arms flew up and down: his body unable to contain his excitement at having finally caught and pinned to a board the archipelago’s most famous butterfly, Eva insula (turquoise, iridescent, insouciant), sole cause of his late-life discontent. He spoke at length about Eva. Within a decade of moving to the islands, she had ‘become enthused with the zeal of a convert’. Over the ensuing fifteen years, ‘everybody who lives in our beautiful archipelago was to suffer, unknowingly, the effects of her social experiment. She set out to promote women in every one of the islands’ major institutions, businesses, the very education system itself. She did this with every resource available to her: her late husband’s money, her children’s inheritance, and by raising funds from unwitting public bodies in the name of the All Islands’ College, of which she was deputy principal until her presumed death by drowning, late last year. Over the next several weeks we will be conducting a far-reaching inquiry into her activities, bringing together church leaders, past and present council members, and other pillars of our community, as well as Mrs Harcourt-Vane’s own sons. Details of the appointment of the judge to head the inquiry will become available within the—’

The official title was An Inquiry into Unfair Female Advantage in the Islands.

But Eva’s women called it the Grievance.

Most of Eva’s women refused to speak to the press, saying they didn’t want to prejudice due process. This was true, because most of them – almost all of them – had been called as witnesses. Also, they were scared. The women whom Eva helped elect to positions of island power; those like Barbara and Lucette who took grants or loans from the Foundation; staff at the museum, college, council – they were all under suspicion. Mx Thompson at Ayrness High was put on unpaid leave. Inga Stenbridge, head of the council, was suspended pending investigation. The Archipelago Women’s Club stayed open – female-only private members’ clubs are mere historical tit for tat – but any other women working in positions of traditional male power, from the three ferrywomen to the director of the museum, editor of the paper, and Jen, head of the Islands of Women Study Centre, were visited by a solicitor from the inquiry.