Before she could answer George called back: “ No thanks. We’re nearly there now.”

Alec was about to start off again when she said: “Don’t leave without me. I want to come to Baltasay.”

He nodded and drove away.

George turned to her, took her arm.

“You know Mary’s secret, don’t you?” he said quietly. “You must tell me, you know.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I really can’t believe Mary’s death was anything but an accident, and in that case there’s nothing to tell.”

As they walked down the hill and approached the harbour the mist cleared and the sky grew lighter. George could make out the horizon of the headland beyond the harbour and the Ruth Isabella in the water. Alec was pulling a sack of mail from the back of his car. Jim, Sandy, and Will were already aboard. A mother and father were calling goodbye to teenage daughters.

“Why are you leaving Kinness?” he asked abruptly. “What are you frightened of?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Why should I be frightened?”

“Don’t go,” he said. He felt that if only he had time to speak to her he would make her understand and persuade her to talk to him. She was surprised by the request, by the breach of social convention. She smiled.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “Jonathan’s a good cook.”

Sandy Stennet shouted to her from the Ruth Isabella.

“If you can get aboard, Mrs. Drysdale, we’re ready to go.”

George watched helplessly as Alec helped her on to the Ruth Isabella. Alec climbed on afterwards and the boat began to move away. The sea was smooth and the boat moved slowly, so there almost no wake.

The parents on the quay drifted off, and Sarah and George were left alone. He looked at his watch. It was a quarter past eight.

“The boat was late this morning,” George said.

“Yes. The lorry broke down. We all had to walk except Alec. He was furious. There was no one in the post office to help him load up. Apparently there was a lot of knitwear of Annie’s to go out, besides the mail. It took him longer than he expected.”

“Did the rest of you walk down together?”

“No. Jim and I were together. We got to the harbour first. Will arrived next—he had been over to the post office to tell Kenneth Dance that Alec would be late. Sandy didn’t get here until just before Alec. I don’t know why he took so long. Perhaps he was hoping for a lift.”

“Did anyone leave the quay after you’d got there?”

“What’s all this about?”

I hear voices in the mist, he thought. How can I tell her that? She’ll think I’m a fool.

“Oh,” he said vaguely, “ it may be important.”

But she humoured him.