‘So who’s our other neighbour?’ she asked, jerking her chin in the direction of the last white cottage within sight.

‘Old Fin.’

Effie was shocked. ‘. . . On his own?’

‘Aye.’

She felt a rush of blood to the head, a familiar feeling as indignation flooded her bones. ‘But what are they thinking, putting an old man on his own in a house all the way up the road there?’ Her voice was pinked with feeling.

‘Don’t worry. I’ve been to check on him just now and he seems right enough,’ Jayne said, seeing her high colour. ‘He’s worn out from the journey so he’s in bed already. I’ll look in on him in the morning too.’

‘But it may not be tonight or tomorrow that he needs you, Jayne. Once the novelty wears off—’

‘I’ll check in on him every day.’

‘But checking in isn’t enough! What if he was to fall? He’s isolated up there. Who is there for him to talk to? What can he watch? Back home, he sat on the Street from sun-up to sundown. No one could pass by without him and Mad Annie and Ma Peg passing comment on the size of the lambs or the burn on our faces or the holes in our shirts. How’s he going to get food? And don’t tell me there’s the shop. He’s as unable to get it from there as shin down the ropes for a bird.’

‘You’re right, of course. They should have thought it through better.’ Jayne mollified her with a smile. ‘But he’s got us. We’ll not abandon him.’

Effie checked her temper, the guilt that she would be abandoning him – all of them – an effective silencer. She stared at her hands, wishing she could say something of what she had gone through; wishing she could at least explain. ‘And the others? Where are they all?’

‘We’ll know more when Norman gets back. I’m hoping they’ve kept Ma Peg and Mad Annie together.’

‘I doubt it, if they’ve put Old Fin out on a limb. They’re of the view that we’re lucky to be given any homes at all.’

‘Well, I’d prefer to think that when they were looking on the maps and allocating homes, they believed they were placing your father and Old Fin as close neighbours, with us in the middle as . . . helpers. Though I agree the distances are more than we’re used to.’

To take her father from Old Fin . . . Another flutter of guilt tremored through her heart. How could she separate them? Neither one of them spoke English. Their companionship was vital for both. But last night had proven they unequivocally could not stay. This wasn’t a choice. It was survival, and whether he would believe it or not, this was the only true way she could protect her father.