Not so far, the Wet Dock Tavern. An’ ye needn’t be givin’ me that look, Fish Meggie. Have ye not been yourself to The Queen an’ lived to tell? It’s just for an hour of fun, an’ all the girls from Aberdeen go.

Clementina doesn’t, I thought.

Aye, an’ ye can come with us, if ye like.

But she didn’t mean it. She knew I didn’t like. I opened my mouth to say all the other things I didn’t like but she held up her palm.

Stop your worryin’, Meggie mine, ye’re not my mother!

I couldn’t stop worrying. I worried when Kitta and Bella Strahan fair danced out of the yards and away to this Wet Dock place. I worried when the hours went by. I heard Mrs Booth come in from the laavie and stump upstairs to her bed. Clementina said, Don’t fret, quinie, but she poked her head around the door to look at the hallway clock, even though we’d just heard it chiming nine. She pinched out the biggest candle and plumped herself onto the bed, but I don’t think her eyes closed, no.

Not long after the chime of ten, we heard scuffling by the side door. Thank the Lord! I hurried to unlock it for Kitta and Bella before Mrs Booth woke up. What would she have said to Bella’s whisky breath, the sour, sweaty reek on them both?

They were unexpectedly quiet, and shivering.

Clementina sat up, frowning, when Bella flopped beside her and then she heaved herself as far from Bella as she could.

Kitta climbed onto the bed and I looked her over carefully. Her clothes—something was amiss. The buttons of her blouse in mismatched holes. One of them missing. I pulled the blanket over her, rubbed her freezing hands. Are ye all right? I whispered.

She jerked her hands away from mine and curled them into her chest. A glance before she turned away. Dead eyes.

I drew a ragged breath. I had seen my sister’s naked face.

~

One day Limpy Davy sidled up to me at the farlin with a grin.

Got summat for ya, I have, he said, all secretive, glancing left and right of him.

Well? I demanded, my fingers not breaking the rhythm of gutting.

Come from the Girl Bessie in from Lerwick last night. The master’s boy give it to me to dee-liver. Give me a ha’penny an’ all.

Lerwick!

He took from his pocket a small package tied with string, and I could see my name printed on the thick brown paper. Sizzling, I was, like a fish in a pan.

Want for me to open it for ya? he said hopefully, shaking the package and holding it up to his ear.

No, I don’t, an’ ye can just give it here afore ye go an’ break anythin’!