“Why have you come?” she asked. “There’s no mystery about my leaving, and I’m going back to Kinness on the next boat. Won’t your questions wait until then?”

She was humouring him, taking an interest in the inquiry through politeness. She thought that he was bored, as she was, missing his work, and he had to create a little diversion for himself, to pass the time.

“They would have waited,” he said. “ Something else brought me to Baltasay.”

“Did it?” Again she was not really interested. She was pouring the tea and she seemed to be devoting her attention to giving him just the right amount of milk. But he felt that her thoughts were elsewhere. It was not that she was anxious, only preoccupied with a pleasant daydream. She looked up and saw that he was watching her.

“I’m sorry that I left the island in such an impulsive way. Did you think that I was your murderer?”

She realized that she had gone too far. He knew that she was mocking him. “ I’m sorry,” she said again. “What do you want to know?”

“I want to know your secret.”

She had not expected this and gave him her full attention. The languorous mood was over.

“That’s very ungallant,” she said, recovering herself. “ No woman will reveal all her secrets.”

“Start by telling me about Alec Stennet.”

She was relieved and laughed again. She stretched a long, smooth arm across the polished table, then turned the palm of the hand up in a gesture of indifference.

“One night at a party he got drunk and I let him walk home with me. Jonathan had left hours before. He’s an unsocial bore at times. I must have been drunk, too, because I let Alec kiss me. He is handsome, you know, in a strange, brutish way. He won’t let me forget it and neither will the island. It was only a kiss, despite what he’s told them. They think I’m a scarlet woman anyway because I won’t go to church, so they’re quite prepared to think the worst of me. There would hardly be less gossip if I were running a brothel in the school house. Alec’s attentions were entertaining for a while, but they became tedious.”

Her diversion, he thought, her relief from boredom.

“And there are no other secrets?” he asked.

“Nothing that I’d be prepared to talk to you about.” She smiled. “And nothing that could have any relevance to Mary’s death.”

“Jonathan did tell you,” George said slowly, “that Robert was murdered?”

“No.” She was very shocked. “He said there was an accident with a shotgun.”

“It was murder,” George said. “The police are back on Kinness this afternoon, asking questions.” He paused. “I shall have to tell them that Robert was on the hill on Monday morning, watching you. You were in the empty croft, talking to someone.”