They all looked at the fast-rising sun, the red skies reaching overhead as the world trickled back into colour. Birds were beginning to speckle the air and throw phrases of morning melodies into the silence, but Effie couldn’t sink into the beauty of a new day. Sholto was as brittle as a stick, the factor too friendly by far – and she was caught between the two of them.

‘How was your father when you left him, sir?’ the factor asked, bringing the attention back to Sholto again.

‘Still sleeping,’ Sholto muttered.

‘Sleeping? Well, that is a positive at least. Let us hope his ankle will have started to mend well through the night. Getting onto the boat will be tricky with an injury.’

‘Injury?’ Effie looked at Sholto questioningly.

‘It’s nothing to be concerned with,’ he said. ‘Father twisted his ankle on the way down yesterday, that is all.’

Effie was mortified. The earl had been in her care and she had just run off, left him.

‘It was the right thing to do, Miss Gillies,’ he said hastily, reading her thoughts. ‘Mr McKinnon’s needs were urgent. He might have been far more gravely injured. Father will be fine. It simply took him rather a long time to descend, that was all. He shall rest up today and it will be fine in no time.’

Sholto stood impassively, his manners correct, but as his words settled she heard what else they contained: he had been free today. They would have been alone – the very thing she had tried to escape and the only thing she wanted . . .

Their eyes met again and she saw the urgency in his. The clock was ticking. This time tomorrow he would be gone.

‘So what made you follow Miss Gillies up here, sir?’ the factor asked him with fresh curiosity. ‘If you had only come out for a swim?’

There was a pause.

‘Well, given that this is my last day on the isle, I was hoping I might persuade Miss Gillies to impart some of her roping skills before I leave.’

As ever, the factor was quick to block. ‘Sadly, as Miss Gillies has explained, she is needed on the other side—’

‘No, it’s fine, Mr Mathieson,’ Effie said quickly. ‘I’m not expected for a while yet. I had left much earlier than I needed to.’

‘Had you trouble sleeping too, then, Miss Gillies?’ Sholto asked. They were veiled words, she knew. He was asking her something more than it seemed.

‘. . . Yes.’

‘Yes, sir,’ the factor snapped. ‘Nonetheless, I can assist you with the roping, sir . . .’

‘Good! I hoped you would, Mathieson,’ Sholto said with a sudden, dazzling smile.

Effie frowned, looking at him in confusion. Surely . . .?

‘. . . If you would be so kind as to serve as my anchor, then Miss Gillies and I may descend together and she can instruct me better.’

The suggestion left the factor momentarily speechless. For once, he had been boxed in.