Effie was itching to charge in and see for herself, finally, what all the fuss was about for mainland life, but her father already had a hand to the doorframe as he shuffled over the threshold and she was forced to wait her turn. Her fingers flexed with frustration.

‘Be careful as you go,’ Mr Croucher warned. ‘The light’s fading fast now and I’m afraid there’s no electricity here as yet.’

They wouldn’t miss what they’d never had, Effie supposed.

A tiny, arms-width lobby opened to rooms on each side and they instinctively moved into the right-hand room in silence. It was suffused with gloom and musty with damp. Even on such a beautiful summer’s evening, it felt chilly inside. Shadows pressed forward from the lumpen walls, and the small window was so ineffectual at letting in any light that Effie expected it threw a dark shadow on the ground outside instead.

She shivered, her heart plunging to her unwelcome boots, and she realized by her sharp disappointment that in spite of her resistance to leaving the isle, a part of her had been hoping to be seduced here after all.

Mr Croucher lit a candle-holder set on the deep windowsill and an aurora of pale amber light lit up the front half of the room. The spiny fingers of her grandmother’s old spinning wheel spread and reached towards her, and she could see her father’s wooden chair balanced upside down by the corner wall.

Mr Croucher walked towards the small chimney breast on the left wall and lit another candle. The room revealed itself fully – but needn’t have bothered. Their scant possessions were as meagre in this house as they had been on the isle.

‘A cord of wood has been prepared and left for you at the back,’ Mr Croucher said. ‘For lighting the stove.’

Effie translated for her father as he stared at the cast-iron stove. It was much the same as the one they had had back home. ‘What’s wrong with peat?’ her father scowled to her.

Effie relayed to Mr Croucher again.

‘Nothing at all, Mr Gillies. It’s just that we use wood here. You saw the trees on the drive over, I take it? Plenty of them here.’ Mr Croucher walked towards the door in the back wall. ‘There’s a stream out the back for water and away to the side is the outdoor toilet—’