This was wishful thinking. She could not tell what he thought about the island, because he hardly ever talked about it. She thought his reluctance to move back was on her behalf.

She enjoyed the honeymoon, but all the time they were in Cornwall she was thinking about moving to the island.

“Make the most of this,” Jim said. “You’ll be there soon enough.”

But she pestered him to tell her about it, to describe the people and the house where they would live, and to go over the plans for the journey, until he was quite irritated.

“You’ll be there soon enough,” he repeated.

Eventually they were almost there. They drove north and took the overnight ferry to Baltasay, the biggest island in the group. The car was packed with their things. Other belongings had been sent on ahead. They took a cabin on the ferry, but Sarah did not sleep well. She was too excited. She had been looking forward to this for so long. She wished that she could share her excitement with Jim but he slept on the bunk above her and did not answer when she called out his name. The ferry pulled into the harbour on Baltasay very early in the morning. It was just as she had imagined. The harbour was full of fishing boats and gulls and the grey and white houses were crowded together around the water. The streets were narrow and cobbled.

Jim stood by her on the deck and pointed things out to her—his old school and houses where friends had lived. She was sure that he was pleased to be back.

They had breakfast in a café overlooking the harbour, then drove to the south of Baltasay to catch the boat to Kinness. Once they were out of the town the landscape was bleak and windswept. There were no trees, even around the crofts, and there were black scars in the hillside caused by peat digging. The road was new and good. They came upon occasional pockets of development—an enormous oil terminal and a modern concrete housing estate which looked like a prison. She tried to persuade herself that she was glad it was so bleak and so strange, and that made the trip even more exciting, but she felt disturbed and a little frightened.