Peat vegetation in general took a long time to get back to normal, although if the area had been heavily grazed, chances were it would all look similar over time. On her trips up here Rhona had seen no grazing sheep, but that didn’t mean there hadn’t been any in the intervening years.

Although she’d begun to feel the cold, she submerged once again, to cross and recross the small yet deep loch, her reasoning being that since the fingers had managed to exit the grave, something might have escaped with them.

She had all but given in to the cold when the beam from her head torch glinted back at her. Going closer, Rhona saw a circular object, likely tarnished metal, wedged between two stones. Prising it free, she rose to the surface, desperate for air.

She now swam towards the beach, knowing she’d stayed in too long and was seriously chilled by her time in the water. Securing her prize on a stone, she quickly stripped off the wetsuit and got dried and dressed. After which, she poured some coffee from her flask and, nursing the cup, warmed both her hands and her insides.

When her teeth had finally stopped chittering, Rhona fetched her camera from her backpack and photographed the item she’d retrieved from the floor of the lochan.

It was clear what it was, despite the tarnished appearance. The vintage-style sterling silver bracelet, once popular as a gift for a child, had likely been a celebratory present for the special event in a little girl’s life, her confirmation into the Roman Catholic Church.

16

Despite the chill in the morning air, Magnus was having his morning coffee on the balcony so that he might watch the boundless flow of the River Clyde as it wound its way westward to the Irish Sea.

Living in a city that stood on a river, in an apartment that overlooked the river, wasn’t the same as living in a stone house on the shores of Scapa Flow in Orkney, but it was a decent enough substitute.

Especially on mornings like this, Magnus decided.

After the sudden downpour, it was as though the earth had sprung to life around him. Spring had already arrived, albeit a little tentatively. With a sunny spell followed by a plentiful water supply from the heavens, everything had decided it was time to sprout. Even his meagre selection of plants that occupied the balcony space with him.

Magnus’s thoughts turned back to Orkney and when he might next visit his island home. He was particularly fond of spring, when the mayflowers appeared. Known in Glasgow as primroses, they weren’t as abundant here as in Orkney, where they turned the roadside verges into a bright blanket of dancing yellow.

From his home at Houton Bay he also had a great view of the hills of Hoy on the other side of Scapa Flow. Here in Glasgow, the scene across the river was undoubtedly urban, but impressive nonetheless. Gone were the huge shipyards that had made Glasgow famous, and in their place were landscaped green living spaces for the new city dwellers.