Until a new teacher could be found, Maggie Stennet took over the school. She found it harder work than she had expected, and when the new teacher came there was no criticism about the standard of lessons.

The island came to know about Elspeth and why she had left Glasgow so suddenly. Kenneth Dance made no difficulty about her explaining her past. A Stennet had murdered two people. Watching a child being battered was a minor crime in comparison. So the Dances and Stennets continued to lead their separate lives and neither family felt that it had a superior moral status to the other.

Another Dance, a distant relative, moved into Robert’s old croft, Tain, and two years later he and Elspeth were married, and had children of their own. After watching James jump to his death at Kell Geo, Elspeth seemed stronger, more decisive. She and Sarah became friends in a quiet, unemotional way.

Melissa stayed on at Kell. They had all expected her to leave Kinness, but she decided that she had nowhere else to go. There was pressure for her to leave the croft. Sandy offered to build her a bungalow at the south of the island. It was not right, it was said, for a woman to have land which could be worked by a man, which might support a family. Agnes thought that Will should have Kell. But Sarah fought on Melissa’s behalf, and when Melissa grew too old and frail to do much on the croft, Jim did it all for her. She never mixed much with people on the island, but Sarah felt that it was because she chose not to, and not because she was frightened. She died at Kell, quite suddenly, when she was nearly seventy.

Even then Will did not come back. He had gone to university in Edinburgh, and when he had taken his degree he stayed on to do post-graduate work. He loved Edinburgh. When he got drunk, he talked with affection of Kinness to his pretty young girlfriends, but he only went home occasionally for holidays. He remained at the university as a lecturer.

In the spring after she had moved on to Kinness Sarah became pregnant. Jim built on to the back of Unsta a bathroom and more bedrooms. Sarah filled the house with pretty things. Jim and Alec worked their land together in a flexible partnership. They worked well together. They had the same ideas. They became quite prosperous. Sarah had twin daughters, and later she had a son. When the children had started school, the nurse retired, at last, and Sarah took over the job. Jim was still serious, still unsure whether he should admire or disapprove of her frivolous ways, but they were happy.