Netta was in no state for consolation or company. She changed her shoes and stormed up the hill to the mound of stones behind the farmhouse looking out over the bay. Today the panorama gave her no comfort. She was ashamed of all the blame she had laid on Rae for not turning up. Fear had turned so quickly to fury. How mean she felt to have doubted him. All their plans were scattered like confetti, for try as she might to play it down now, she knew how much that legal piece of paper had meant to her. ‘Mrs Hunter’ shivered in the wind at the lie she must now live to survive.

*

Peg could see the girl was struggling, not herself at all, anxiously scouring the broadcasts and newspapers for news of the great invasion; poring over her husband’s letters as if her life depended on it. This unexpected marriage had not brought a bloom to her cheeks or increased her meagre appetite. She found no joy in the visits of old school pals who came to shower her with gifts. Angus had put a wedding notice in the Galloway News to cheer her up but it had sent her into a fit of weeping. There was no pleasing the girl if there wasn’t a letter from Rae. He was based somewhere in the south of England on manoeuvres, apparently.

It was nothing Peg could put her finger on exactly; a shiftiness about the eyes, a reticence to give information, a reluctance to make plans for war service. No wedding photos were forthcoming which was strange. The two-piece came out each Sunday for church – and so it should, the amount of coupons she had wasted on such a show. But there was something not right with the girl. Perhaps she was now regretting such a harum-scarum marriage or perhaps she was just sickening for something or perhaps… Oh God, surely not that! Not a bairn on the way? That was not fair, not after all the years Peg had prayed for one herself.

How many times had she lain on Dr Begg’s couch, being pummelled inside, only to be told: ‘Sound as an ox. I could drive a coach and horses through your pelvis, dear. Not to worry, it’ll come when it’s ready’? As the years went on there had been a few hopes, all dashed. Now this chit of a girl was going to have a honeymoon bairn by the looks of things. It was just no fair!

All this torment Peg kept within herself for weeks, not wishing to make the tension in the house any worse. Angus kept his daughter busy on the farm, with the calves and the clipping, the hay timing. They waited for the daily bulletins on the news. D-Day plus one… plus five… plus eight. The wireless news was always encouraging but by now everyone knew that reports were shaped and vetted to keep up morale.

*