When they pulled up outside his house, he turned off the engine and they sat in silence for a couple of moments. Finally Malcolm said, because he knew he had to, “Did he hurt you, Tommy?”

“No. Not in the way you mean.”

“I’m sorry.” The car light went off, so he could no longer see Tommy’s face.

Tommy said levelly, “I hate this fucking island. If I could, I’d wipe it off the face of the earth.”

He opened the car door abruptly and got out. By the time Malcolm had followed him into the house, Tommy had already disappeared upstairs to his bed. Malcolm remained alone in the kitchen for several hours, knowing there would be no possibility of sleep.

16

So not an unmitigated success, Malcolm thought the following morning.
He was relieved to be going out early to work with Robert. No sign of Tommy when he set off at seven A.M. Malcolm left him a note saying he’d be gone a while.

The weather was bad, even by their usual standards. After the calm of the day before, it had turned, and the wind had been hurling itself against the side of the cottage since Malcolm woke at six, bringing with it harsh, freezing rain. Malcolm zipped his coat up to his chin, pulled on a woolly hat and set off into the cold and wet.

A hard morning. He and Robert spent an hour and a half taking the feed supplements out to the ewes on the rough grazing, heaving the bags from the truck and pouring the mixture into the block containers, watched impassively by the sheep through a haze of rain. It was impossible to talk much as they worked; all their energy was taken up with carrying the bags and withstanding the onslaught of the weather. But Malcolm was glad to lose himself in the heft of physical labour. It was difficult to think about anything else with your back and shoulders aching and the wind tumbling around your ears.

“What now?” he said to Robert when they’d finished and were leaning against the side of the truck. The rain had stopped, but the wind was still fierce and although they were half sheltered here, Malcolm still had to raise his voice to be heard.

“It’s all right, I can manage today.”

“I don’t mind,” Malcolm said.

He could feel Robert looking at him. “I thought you’d want to be home, spending time with Tommy.”

“Not,” Malcolm said, “when there’s work that needs doing.”

“Well, in that case, it’s about time I trimmed their hooves. We could do the ones in the pasture.”