‘Perhaps I should stay a wee while after all then. See if the situation changes.’ She looked back at Effie. ‘Have I missed much?’

Effie’s mouth parted. Where did she begin? How did she begin to explain the predicament in which she found herself, drawn to a man she had no business calling a friend, much less anything more. But with no mother to advise her, no sisters . . . Her life had been lived on a male plane, especially since her brother’s death. How was she supposed to know what to feel, do, be?

‘There’s been some excitement, aye,’ Effie murmured non-committally. She felt vulnerable even broaching it. The girls had teased her for the way she’d ruthlessly chopped their elder brothers at the knees when they’d started to look at her through a new gaze but now she was the one with a fresh perspective. Why had no one ever told her it felt like this?

Flora’s eyes brightened as she saw her friend’s uncharacteristic hesitancy. ‘Speak to me. Tell me.’

‘I’ve been guiding the visitors while the men were gone.’

‘Aye.’

‘I’m being paid two shillings for my trouble,’ she hedged.

‘Two?’

She felt so nervous. ‘And we’ve become friends.’

Flora frowned. ‘I thought you said they were lords.’

‘Well, yes, but . . . you wouldn’t know it. Not really. There’s no airs and graces when we’re all out walking together.’

Flora’s eyes narrowed. ‘And . . .?’ she prompted. She had always had an instinct for secrets. The minister’s wife had torn her hair out trying to teach Flora to read, but even as a young girl, she’d had an innate ability to read people. ‘What else is there?’

‘Miss Gillies! I’ve been searching for you.’

The voice was sharp through the air and they looked up to find the factor striding towards them.

‘Eeesht,’ Flora said under her breath. ‘If it’s not the devil himself. I’ll catch you later.’

‘Flora, wait—’ But her friend was already in motion, sauntering off and deliberately swinging her hips as she passed by. The factor was one of the few men seemingly unmoved by Flora’s powers – she used to joke he could only be aroused by a profit margin – but she flaunted them in his presence anyway, if only to provoke his opprobrium. Flora wasn’t one to be ignored and she well knew that her womanly wiles, and how she used them, did not fall under his jurisdiction.

‘Mr Mathieson,’ she said breezily as she passed him, her nose in the air.

The factor gave a terse nod, coming to a stop beside Effie. ‘Where the stream is shallowest, it’s noisiest,’ he muttered, watching Flora go with a frown. He waited until she had passed through the dyke and was almost upon the cottages before turning back to Effie.