Fiona was going through the sequence of events at her desk. By the Sunday after the accident, three more bodies had been washed ashore, the first was that of the woman who had been fished out of the river early on. Her funeral was celebrated as if she had been nobility, though she was only a humble servant in some big house in Fife. Those not washed ashore were pulled onto boats with grappling irons that caused the injuries noted in the post-mortems. The mussel dredgers carried out much of the recovery work, with divers continuing to go down under the bridge. The whalers’ prediction on the timing of bodies surfacing was correct. By Tuesday the sixth of January, there were another eleven bodies and by the end of January thirty-seven bodies had been recovered altogether.

Fiona leant back on her chair and thought about how the families must have felt. At least those whose loved ones’ bodies were recovered could grieve properly. There was a specific Victorian mourning etiquette she had read about; widows were meant to dress in mourning clothes for between one and four years. Indeed, some followed Queen Victoria’s lead and remained in black for the rest of their lives. Half-mourning was introduced for younger widows, who were permitted grey and lavender. That seemed all well and good for the wealthy, but what about the vast majority of Dundee’s population, the poor? They might already have black or grey clothes, but lavender?

And what about those many families who could never grieve? Only fifty-nine bodies were ever recovered, some washed ashore months after the accident. Though the specific passenger list was unknown, it was believed that up to twenty bodies were never found.

Fiona turned to the following chapter in her book, entitled ‘Relief Fund’. Most of the passengers were poor, travelling in the three third class carriages, and money was given where needed. McGonagall was right: Sir Thomas Bouch had a lot to answer for. Why the hell had he not been up for trial? He was certainly blamed throughout Scotland for his lack of knowledge on structural engineering but he died soon after the court of inquiry report had absolved him of guilt. It concluded that the collapse of the bridge ‘was occasioned by the insufficiency of the cross bracing and its fastenings to sustain the force of the gale. If the piers had been properly constructed and maintained, the bridge could have withstood the storm that night.’ Though according to McGonagall, the girders needed sturdy buttresses to support them.

Fiona looked up at the clock. She had to go, it was an early pick-up from school and then an hour to get Jamie ready for guising. The pumpkin lantern was looking pretty good; it had taken hours to make. And they would be eating a great deal of pumpkin soup for the next few days.

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