There would be tensions galore and the rivers of frustration, jealousy and rivalry to ford if she came back north. So much uncertainty. Best to ford rivers at the burn or the source, deal with what came along sooner rather than later. That was surely something all of them knew now. Netta would always be rooted to this spot because of Gus but Griseley had its charms too. Where would her heart settle? Could she keep on shifting it from one place to the other? And there was Drew.

With Peg and Father no longer against her, surely there was nothing they couldn’t work out, given time and space, to make Gus’s future a happy and secure one? He would take many more months to recover his mobility. Her instincts told her that Gus needed to be in familiar surroundings with friends and pets, not flung into a strange town or school. He was going to be a difficult patient. She had to do what was best for her child. There would be Drew’s visits and outings together and who knew where those might lead?

Netta thought about the vow she had made on that dark, dark night when Gus’s future looked so bleak. She had let go her claim to him then and he had lived. Now even Peg and Angus were learning to loosen the tight cords of control. Here on Carrick shore they were all beginning a journey of hope and trust. It must succeed for it had cost them dear.

Netta fingered the necklace of coloured stones sparkling in the sunshine; garnet, amber, citrine, jade, turquoise, lapis lazuli and amethyst, shielding her tears from view. There was no rainbow in the sky to seal their promises today but who needed rainbows when such a crock of gold was sitting beside her on this pebbly beach?

In the beginning there was colour everywhere from orange-red to purple: birth to death. But now there was a rainbow of colour in her heart, no longer dulled with the jet of despair but tinged with a hint of gold, the colour of love. That was enough for now.

Acknowledgements

Firstly I would like to thank all the team at Heads of Zeus for giving this book a new lease of life. Many thanks to Cosgrove’s House of Colour, Rimington, Lancashire for their advice about the clothing trade and Lisa Kennedy of ‘Sugar Almonds’ who explained bridal design and its history.

I am also indebted to the Crichton Royal Hospital Museum, Dumfries, the inspiration for Park Royal Asylum. Thank you to the people of Kirkcudbright who shared wartime memories, the Stewartry Museum, Galloway News and Tourist Information. I acknowledge Adam Gray’s wartime anecdotes in his book Borgue Academy.

Last but not least, without experiences endured within my own family in an era when mental health was not so easily supported and often misunderstood, I could not have written this story.

Leah Fleming

Author the Author