Ann walked towards the fireplace where Blind Mattie sat, pipe in hand.

‘Come away in.’ She turned towards the girl. ‘Is it the same lady?’

‘Aye, just like you said, Auntie Mattie. But today she’s wearing all black. Like a raven.’

Mattie patted the seat beside her. ‘Draw near. You have things to tell me.’

Ann swept off some grime from the only other chair in the room and sat. She looked at Mattie, this woman she had known all her life, and felt a pang of emotion. Ann had no family, no connection with anything; only this woman knew everything about her origins, her childhood. She stretched forward to take Mattie’s hand.

‘How are you today, Mattie?’

‘Doing away, same as last time. Why have you come here again?’

Ann paused as she thought about what she had planned to say. But there was something about speaking to Mattie that made all words futile.

‘I’ve got a problem,’ she said, staring into Mattie’s dead eyes.

‘Aye, I ken that. That’s why you’ve come back.’ She put down her pipe and turned to face Ann. She patted her hands around Ann’s lap till she located her other hand. ‘What do you want from me, Annie Robertson?’

Ann’s shoulders slumped. No one had called her that for years. Alfred Johnston calling her Annie had unsettled her, but now this.

‘Mattie, you and I have known each other forever. My mother said that when I was born, you were there to help the midwife and then assist my mother after.’

Mattie chuckled. ‘Midwife. Assist. You never talked like that then, Annie. We called the midwife the howdie wifie, you ken that.’

Ann nodded.

‘And yes, I gave your Ma a hand, but she did the most of it herself. Well, she had to do most things herself, with that drunken father of yours.’

Ann sighed.

‘So are you happy in your new life, all that money and the big house and the new clothes? Never worrying about putting food on the table?’

Ann removed the handkerchief from her pocket and sniffed. ‘Yes, I am. I have a wonderful family and I…’

‘But if your husband’s dead, how do you plan to keep the bairns in the only way they know?’

Ann sat up straight. ‘Well, yes, but what if he wasn’t dead but had come back to steal my bairns? My precious children. What would I do then, Mattie?’ Ann’s voice was urgent.

Mattie picked up her pipe and took a long, slow suck.

Elspet scampered towards the meagre fire and thrust in the poker. A brief flicker of red lit the embers.