A cry of voices startled her from her thoughts and she saw the women wading out to the boat. She had to get back down there. She ran again, in perpetual motion it seemed, back to the beach. Her Uncle Hamish and oldest cousin Euan, who was her age, had jumped out and were helping the women haul the boat onto the shore. It stopped with a jolt as the prow met the shingly sand and the men that had come back – only half of those who had gone out – leapt into the water. Donald’s limp body was carried between them, an ungainly method as each arm and leg was held, his head hanging back, his skin cloud white.

Some of the women gave a cry, the smallest children clutching their mothers’ legs. Effie looked back for sight of Mary. She was coming down the grass, moving well given the distress she’d been in minutes earlier.

They carried him up the beach and set him down on the grass edge. Lorna immediately laid a blanket over him and crouched over, peeling back the shirt sleeve that had been torn off and used as a bandage. Blood had seeped through, drying dark and clotted in his hair. The minister stood beside them, offering up a prayer as the nurse worked.

Effie felt a stab of guilt. Why hadn’t she looked over at the island as she’d roped up? She’d have seen the semaphore immediately. Vital minutes might have been saved. Instead, she’d been too busy trying to avoid a young lord’s bright eyes to even notice the SOS across the water.

‘What happened to him?’ Lorna asked, examining the wound more closely. It was a deep, nasty gash to the back upper corner of his skull.

‘He fell against a rock,’ the factor said, back again.

‘You saw it happen?’ Lorna asked.

‘Aye. We were covering Sunadal together. He was lunging for a sheep, caught it but it wriggled free and in the struggle, he lost his balance and fell.’

Lorna frowned, looking back at the cut. ‘It’s deep,’ she murmured. ‘He must have fallen heavily.’

‘He did, aye. Went down like a stone.’

‘When did it happen?’ She was peering at his pupils now.

‘Six, seven hours ago? The sun was still low.’

‘Seven hours?’ There was rebuke in Lorna’s voice.

‘It took me an hour alone just to get enough folk to help carry him down to the disembarking point! Then we had to wait for you to see.’

Effie felt his words like a punch to the stomach. She felt like she’d been the reason there was a delay.

‘It was fine on the morning check,’ Jayne Ferguson said defensively. ‘The boys went up to check as usual.’

‘Bad luck for us then that he fell that bit too late for the breakfast lookout,’ the factor snapped.