Involuntarily, Malcolm thought of Nicky and Beth, and hoped Tommy wasn’t thinking of them too.

“What’s it like, being back here?” Kathy said to Tommy. “Does it look just how you remember?”

“Yes, I think so,” Tommy said. “The landscape doesn’t change much, does it?” He paused. “New generation of sheep, though.”

There was a moment’s hesitation before everyone realized he was making a joke, and Kathy and Ed laughed heartily. Malcolm smiled and Tommy looked ruefully down at the floor, as if embarrassed by his own weak attempt at humour.

Fiona and Mary reappeared at that point, coming to join the small circle. “What’s all this hilarity about?” Fiona said, and Malcolm winced for Tommy as his joke was repeated by Kathy, and then Fiona and Mary laughed too, in a slightly forced manner.

“What we need,” Mary said, “is a new generation of people to join the sheep.”

“Aye, Tommy,” Kathy said. “That must be one thing you’ve noticed. All of us are old now. You’ve come to an island full of the elderly and the decrepit.”

“Speak for yourself,” Ed said. More forced laughter.

“I don’t think that’s entirely fair,” Fiona began. “What about the Logans? Lovely young couple, Tommy, about your age, in their thirties—’

“Forties, hen,” Gavin put in from across the room, where he was standing with Chris by the fireplace.

“Well, young, anyway,” Fiona said, with a brief reproachful glance at her husband. “They came here two years back, with their two girls, who are filling places in the school, aren’t they, Mary?”

“That’s right,” Mary said. “Nice children, too. Mia and Suzie.”

“And they seem settled and here to stay,” Fiona concluded. “So there’s still a bit of young blood coming in.”

“They’re not here to stay,” Gavin said, coming over now, followed by Chris. “They’re taking a career break from their hectic life in Edinburgh, and as soon as Mia’s ready to start secondary school, they’ll up sticks and move back to the mainland. She’s ten now, isn’t she? We’ve got them for another year at the most.”

“Gavin, you’re being pessimistic,” Fiona told him.

“James Logan as good as told me that was their plan,” Gavin said. “We have to face facts. People don’t move here to stay. Not now.”

“Well, Chris and Mary did, didn’t they?” Fiona said triumphantly, taking in both Dougdales in her appeal. “They’re still here, nearly twenty years later, when nobody thought they’d stay. You don’t mind me saying that now, Chris and Mary? You’re proof that there’s hope yet.”

“It’s true,” Mary said. “We’re going nowhere.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Gavin said gallantly. “I can’t think of better neighbours.”