‘Nope,’ Robert agreed, with another smile. ‘But women gutted, mended nets and tended home. Men went out to fish. That was the way of things. Anyway, Bren’s dad might have been willing to leave her the boat – from what Barbara’s said it sounds as if he might have been pretty forward-thinking for his time. But though she might have been able to own and manage it from shore, there was no man who’d crew it with Bren aboard, and without that it would have become even more of a money pit. When her dad got sick, he sold the family home and the boat to Douglas McKean to clear the last of his debts so that Bren wouldn’t have to deal with them herself. McKean’s family were spread between Crovie and Gamrie, and owned several boats. They were doing well for themselves.’

‘Was this before Bren converted the Fishergirl’s Luck?’

‘Oh yes. Back then it was storage for the family’s fishing clobber.’

‘Let me guess,’ Anna said. ‘McKean thought he was getting the shed in with the bargain.’

‘Got it in one. But Bren had already got her dad to put it in writing that the place belonged to her. She’d even paid him for it out of the money she’d earned from the herring, to make sure there could be no dispute. The deed should be with the solicitor – you’ve never seen it?’

‘I never thought to ask for it. I should – I’d like to see it.’

‘Bren left it with them for safekeeping. Just in case.’ He laughed at her expression. ‘Not necessarily because she thought Dougie would try to steal it. I don’t think even he would go that far, and it can only ever have been about a point of principle. But so many lost boats and property in the 1953 storm. I think Bren wanted to make sure it would be easy to find in case the place was ever badly damaged by another event like that.’

Anna looked out over the water, shaking her head. How she wished she could have known Bren MacKenzie. Even this brief description had painted in her mind a picture of a woman who knew exactly what she wanted and had no intention of ever being talked out of it.