‘I’m not surprised!’ Peg smiled. ‘We’ve had enough of you to know where that came from!’ Peg was actually smiling! At long last she had acknowledged the special bond between Gus and his mother.

Netta sniffed away the tears. It was still Peg he cried for when they worked his legs. On her last visit he had looked at her so angrily. ‘I want my mammy – not you, my mammy!’ The rebuke was breaking her heart.

9

Amethyst

‘Colour of the moon in soberness.
From this rainbow’s end
Earth and Heaven reveal themselves.
Time to cross over into the unknown.
To begin again?’

Back to Griseley, June 1949

Netta flung open the windows and doors of her cottage to let the breezes air the rooms and shift the fusty unlived in smell of the place. The garden patch was knee-high in rogue grasses and corn poppies, dandelions and buttercups, as she waded to the stone wall and sniffed soot not salt in her nostrils. Coming back gave her no relief from her concern for Gus. There would be so much to catch up on if she was to get back to Dumfries again at the weekend.

She had deposited the van at the garage and called in to see if her workshop was still standing. Polly had done her best to keep the work going but no sixteen year old could be expected to run someone else’s business. The unmade pieces of outstanding orders were packed away neatly and Ginny Mackeever’s gown hung on the rail waiting for its final fitting at High House for the wedding in two weeks’ time. Its full lace underskirts swamped the room. Everything would need adjusting. Netta fingered the fabric. She would be glad when this wretched thing was out of her sight.

She wanted to thank Polly for her banner and the thoughtfulness behind the design. She must have been lonely here each day. It was no place for a young girl without company. In fact she had thought over Polly’s future very carefully on the long journey back. Training and experience at college would be far more beneficial for her natural talent than being shut up in a back street workshop. Polly hankered after theatrical costumes and designs, embroidery and textile fashions. It was only fair to offer her the chance to take up that place at college in September should it be offered.

She must let Polly go, she pondered, but where did that leave Netta? Where would she be in September when Polly left and Drew was married? What if Gus was still in hospital? How would she manage then? Griseley or Galloway: where would her heart settle? When home is one place and your roots are elsewhere, something has to shift.