From downstairs, there came an enthusiastic ‘Woof’ of agreement.

Forty-One

‘Rachel?’

It was Ezra, knocking at his guest room door. Rachel was still in bed. For a second she thought she’d overslept and turned over in confusion to look at the alarm clock on the bedside table, but no. It was still early enough that the light had yet to push its way in around the curtains of her borrowed bedroom.

‘Yes?’ she called, sitting up quickly. ‘Is everything all right?’

‘I think there’s something you should see.’

‘I’ll be right down.’

When she came into the kitchen, Ezra turned with a smile and indicated the table, which was covered with newspapers.

‘What’s this?’

‘Toby dropped them off a few minutes ago. Said you should look at that one first.’

He pointed at a copy of the Aberdeenshire Herald. Rachel looked at him as she picked it up, unfolding it so she could see the whole front page. She caught her breath. Ezra pulled out a chair beside her and tapped her on the shoulder. She sank into it, still reading. It was a full and damning retraction of the piece that had sought to destroy Rachel’s reputation and position at the lighthouse. It was unstinting, in fact, in its correction of the story.

‘Toby,’ Rachel said, when she found her voice. ‘Toby must have done this.’

‘Yes,’ Ezra said. ‘He’s been hard at work, by the looks of it.’

Rachel blinked, surveying the other papers spread out in front of her. ‘But what are all the rest of these for?’

Ezra smiled and reached over to pick up the Guardian. He turned a few pages and then flipped the paper around and laid it in front of her.

ABERDEENSHIRE PROPERTY MAGNATE UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR CORRUPTION

Rachel read the article, feeling slightly stunned. The piece even included a small artist’s sketch of the development that Dora McCreedy had planned – the one that would mean the lighthouse had to go. It apparently wasn’t the first time McCreedy and her firm had used dirty tricks to secure the property they wanted, and there were details of this history, too, as well as the names of prominent local figures caught up in what was clearly going to be a national scandal.

‘It’s echoed throughout the others,’ Ezra told her.

Rachel felt numb. She nodded and then stood up, reaching for the local paper that had started it all and tucking it beneath one arm. ‘I think,’ she said, ‘that I should go and see him.’

Ezra smiled. ‘Good idea.’

Toby looked as if he’d been up for hours when he opened the door to her knock, or perhaps as if he hadn’t been to bed at all.

‘Hi,’ he said, something unsettled in his face.

‘I’ve seen the papers,’ she told him, holding up the Herald. ‘All of them.’

He hesitated for a moment, frowning, then pushed the door open wider. ‘Come in. I’ve just put the kettle on.’

‘Thank you,’ Rachel said, as she followed him into the kitchen. ‘For what you’ve done. For making them set the record straight.’