‘Genius, Fi, of course there won’t be just one Swansea in the world, bet there’s others… Here we go. Swansea is also a ghost town in Arizona, a community in Toronto, a winery in New Jersey, a cave in Jamaica and… Yes! A town in Australia. And guess where in Australia?’

Fiona shrugged. ‘Give in.’

‘Tasmania! Bingo.’

CHAPTER 17

Chapter 17

Friday 2 January 1880

Ann Craig gazed out of the drawing room window. It was a clear, sunny morning, bitterly cold and crisp, the frost hard on the ground. There was barely a breath of wind. She surveyed this tranquil scene and cast her mind back to Sunday, when the worst storm for decades had hit Dundee. Was it only five days ago? So much had happened since then, but nothing, absolutely nothing, had been resolved. Donald Baxter said the city was still in shock, reeling from the accident, so many dead or presumed dead. It was the lack of knowledge that was the worst. And somewhere at the back of her mind, Ann nurtured a tiny inkling that Robert was still alive. Not that she was weak with worry about his actual loss; no, her worry was about their circumstances. She would not, whatever happened, allow her children to live in anything less than the luxury they now did. She had known poverty and would do anything to prevent the three of them ever being poor.

Ann turned her gaze towards the broken bridge and remembered the horror with which she had watched the train plummet into the water. She sniffed and dabbed her nose. She would not cry – that was something she had never done, even when she was little. She was strong and she would get through this, her children at her side.

She waved as she spotted her darling children playing on the Green. James and Lizzie were running together, a red kite trailing from the boy’s hand. The Donaldson twins were just behind them, their kite white. All four children turned to look up and wave. And there, at the back of the racing children, strolled Archibald. Why was he not at work in his practice? But of course, she had lost track of the days – doctors, like other workers in the city, returned to work on the third. So he was still officially on holiday and taking the four children out with their kites. She tried to imagine Robert ever doing that – it simply would never happen, he would send Baxter out with them if their governess were away. Robert was not at ease with children, whether his own or others. He either treated them like his workers, imperious and authoritative, or like his servants, distant and aloof.