Suddenly she felt cold and wet, awake as if from a strange dream. What was she doing on the sand dunes? There were no shadows to read the time by but it was late and Bump was crying as he snorted for the breast. Netta felt a let down rush of milk. Her bone-weary limbs ached with cold. A man was walking down the shoreline, smiling. He waved and Netta waved back. It was Rae come to collect them at long last. He had not let them down after all. She rushed towards him eagerly. Rae would know what to do.

*

‘We found her by the beach, poor lassie, all done in.’ Dr Begg sat with them all, sipping his hot tea with relish while the drugged patient drifted away from them on the bed. ‘The bairn’s fine, no harm done this time, but we cannae have any more of these carryings on. It’s no fair on Nurse Plenderleith or her staff. When they get like this they have to be contained for their own good, made to rest in bed. She’ll be off to hospital as soon as I can call an ambulance. They’ll keep her under observation night and day. The next few days are critical, I’m afraid. She’ll either sleep it off and be as right as rain in no time or… What a pity. Such a fine lass for this to happen to. You never can tell with mothers how a birth will take them.’

‘What doctor is saying is, some mothers harm their babies when they get in one of these states. Do you understand?’

‘You’re telling me I’ve got a daughter off her head?’ Angus muttered. ‘Running off with her bairn half-naked for all the world to see.’

‘She wouldn’t know a thing about it, couldn’t help herself, a temporary lapse. There’s a big name for it but little else. Just one of those things.’

‘What happens to the bairn?’ asked Peg, trying to grasp all that had happened. ‘You must do what is best for her, Doctor. I’m sorry we’ve had to bring all this on you, Sadie. I don’t know what to think but I don’t want it all round the district. Katy Beattie has a tongue on her the size of an ox!’

‘She’ll no say a word, I promise.’ The nurse smiled. ‘No one need be any the wiser. Normally it would be called childbed fever but I’ve always prided myself on having no such infections here.’

‘I wouldn’t ask you to lie, of course.’ Peg folded her arms and sighed. ‘Could we just say she’s gone into the maternity hospital for special care? We’ve never had such a to do in our family before. It takes a bit of stomaching, her running off like that. I suppose we’ll have to bring his lordship back with us now?’