She nodded as though his answer had fitted what she thought.

‘I will have to leave, and soon. I need to take care of this,’ she said.

He felt for her hand. ‘I want to—’ he began.

She pulled her hand away. ‘You want to what? Be a father this time round? Make up for messing up the first time?’ Her question wasn’t said in a cruel voice, just an honest one.

He couldn’t answer that, because he didn’t know.

‘You’re right. Only you can decide, but I’m here if you need me.’

A shadow played across her face, as though a sudden cloud had appeared in a cloudless sky and covered the sun.

‘I’ll make an appointment,’ she said.

‘Here in Scotland somewhere?’ he asked.

‘It’ll be easier to go to London. I’ll have to go sometime anyway.’ She paused. ‘I spoke to my friend Lucy this morning. Richard hasn’t been back asking about me. She thinks he’s given up. I can stay with her and her boyfriend initially.’

So she’d already decided about the pregnancy and about him. He looked up to find her eyes on him.

‘It could just as well be Richard’s and then it’ll have a homicidal maniac for a father,’ she said bluntly.

‘You mean rather than a suspected rapist and murderer?’ he tried, with a wry smile.

He watched as she decided to take his answer the way he’d meant it.

‘Not to mention a mother who chose to have sex with both men, without thinking of the consequences,’ she said.

‘I thought it was more than just sex,’ he said, realizing that was true.

That seemed to put her at a loss. ‘I wish I could swear in Gaelic,’ she said. ‘Like Malcolm.’

‘I’ll teach you if you want.’ Even as he answered he was following her gaze, which had become fixated on something.

‘Isn’t that smoke coming from the hill over there?’ she said, pointing.

He retrieved the telescope and took a look. The smoke, he thought, was the least of their worries as, adjusting the lens, he spotted a bank of flames swiftly moving across the planted pines that circled the hill opposite.

‘We have to go back,’ he said. ‘I’ll drop you at Beanach.’

Before he drove off, he checked for a mobile signal. Noting it was poor, he radioed Colin, praying he wasn’t too far away from his own radio.

‘What’s up, boss?’ Colin said in a cheerful voice.

‘There’s a fire by—’ He gave the location. ‘Alert Malcolm and the crew. I’m up near the gorge with no mobile signal. The fire’s currently moving westward.’

Colin okayed that and rang off.

‘Can you check for a mobile signal as we head down?’ he told Joanne. ‘As soon as you get one, call Malcolm just to be sure.’