“No. I didn’t know anything about it until I went out to school on Monday. I don’t usually buy a paper, so I didn’t read about the case in March. Someone had left a paper on my seat on the bus which collected us at Lutwick and took us to the high school. I recognized Elspeth at once. It was horrible. I hid the paper in one of my bags so that the younger children wouldn’t see it.”

“So you didn’t know about Elspeth before Mary died; you couldn’t have told her?”

“No.”

George had been so sure that he had found Mary’s secret at last. He had been certain that the child had learnt enough about Elspeth’s past to taunt the Dance family, even if she did not realize the implications of what she said. He had been convinced that Will had seen the publicity surrounding the original court case and had passed the information to Mary. Now it was impossible. If Mary had no way of knowing that Ben had been ill treated and that Elspeth and her husband had been in court, then the theory would not work and he would have to start from the beginning again.

Will sat hunched on the bed and waited for more questions, but George left the room and almost ran down the stairs. At the bottom Sandy was waiting for him.

“George,” he said. “My friend. Have you anything to tell us? The police were here again yesterday asking questions but they won’t talk to me.”

“No,” George said. “ I thought that I’d come close to it, but it won’t work.”

“You will find out?”

“Yes. I’ll find out.”

It was a relief to be outside again, away from the questions, the worried faces. It seemed that the stability of the island, preserved by the philosophy of keeping up appearances, was under threat, and that the strict code of conduct was not strong enough to prevent the tension and anger coming to the surface and exploding. It’s not fair, he thought. It’s not really my business. It shouldn’t be my responsibility to hold the place together.

He was angry with himself because he had relied so heavily on the theory that Mary had known about Elspeth, but he could not relinquish it. Perhaps Kenneth and Annie are lying, he thought. Perhaps Ben talks about his father being in prison to anyone who will listen, but they don’t want to admit it. For a moment he thought he would return to the post office, demand to see the child, ask him if he had grown close enough to Mary to confide in her. But that was clearly impossible.

Jonathan might know, he thought with a spark of hope. If Ben had mentioned his father at school or if he and Mary were especially close, then Jonathan should know.