Other men went on to the boat then, and started to unload it. Sarah expected Jim to go with them to help, but he took her hand and led her off to introduce her to family and friends. She had met his immediate family at the wedding, but everyone wanted to take her hand, kiss her cheek. Jim stood close beside her, as if she might need protection from those people who only wanted to be friendly.

George Palmer-Jones, the elderly passenger, stood at the back of the crowd and watched with interest. He could not decide whether Sarah would settle on the island or not. He rather thought that she would not. He watched as Agnes, Jim’s mother, tried to introduce her youngest child to Sarah. The child, Mary, would not have it. She pulled away from her mother’s hand and would not look at Sarah. George thought that Mary was playing up on purpose because she knew that Agnes would be specially upset if there was a scene today. The girl’s face was red with the exertion of the tantrum, but she had a gleam in her eye as if she were enjoying herself immensely. Mary was twelve, but she behaved at times like a six-year-old. George thought that she was disturbed, but not as disturbed as she pretended to be. Perhaps if her deafness had been recognized earlier, or if Agnes had agreed to send her to a special school on the mainland, she might have been different.

“Come to meet your new sister-in-law,” Agnes said. She spoke very slowly and looked directly at Mary so that the girl could lipread. “ This is Sarah, Jim’s wife.”

“Don’t want to!” Mary said. It seemed to George that she emphasised the nasal, toneless quality of the voice. She was exaggerating her deafness.

She hid behind her mother and began to kick and scream. Sarah did not know how to react to the girl’s rudeness. She did not want her first day on the island spoilt by unpleasantness. She wished that Agnes would take Mary away. She was confident that she would win Mary round if she had the girl to herself. She was good with children. She had enjoyed her spell on the paediatric ward. She wanted children of her own. Lots of them. Of course her children would not be difficult or deaf.

She smiled at Agnes.

“Don’t upset her,” she said. “ There will be plenty of time for Mary and I to become friends. I’m sure that we will be.”

Behind her mother’s back, Mary was sticking out her tongue and rolling her eyes, but Sarah pretended not to notice.