‘I want my baby!’ She kept on hugging herself, rocking back and forth. Peg tried to make chit-chat. ‘Look I’ve brought you some flowers from the garden and your summer frock. The bairn’s fine,’ she replied, shocked by how much the girl had deteriorated. It would break Angus’s heart to see the state of her thin body with legs like spurtles.

‘How long’s she going to be in this state?’ Peg whispered to the sister. ‘I was no prepared for this.’

‘She’s being assessed and is under careful observation. Puerperal dementia is a very serious condition. We take no risks. Mother has to be separated from baby, of course. For everyone’s benefit, you understand.’

‘And it’s us left holding the poor wee soul. For how long, do you think?’

‘We really can’t dictate how long the course of the illness lasts. It generally responds to medication and other methods if need be… A few weeks perhaps. I can’t speculate, Mrs Nichol.’

‘A few weeks! I can’t keep traipsing up here every day…’

‘And we wouldn’t recommend you to either. It serves no purpose, only upsets the patient. See how she’s getting agitated now. Time to go, Mrs Nichol. Better leave her alone for a few weeks. We’ll keep your doctor informed if there’s any change. Don’t look so worried. It can happen to the very best of mothers, we don’t understand it but they do usually get better…’

‘This “purple demention” is a funny disease. I’ve not had one straight answer since it happened. How can she be right in her head one minute and mad as a hatter the next?’

‘She’s not insane, just mentally disturbed by all the changes in her body after childbirth. It may be due to fever in her milk. You see we’ve bound her breasts with sticky tape and given her drugs to take the milk away? That will ease things, I’m sure.’

‘I told her not to do the breast feeding. Look what it’s gone and done!’ Peg exclaimed as she made for the door, not looking back. It felt dreadful to be leaving the girl alone in here but she couldn’t wait to get out of the door.

‘We think it best that new babies get a natural start, Mrs Nichol. Nature knows best.’

‘Not in this case it appears.’ Peg had firm opinions on that score. She paused and turned to wave a false ‘cheery bye’. Netta was watching with a wild look in her eye, like a tiger pacing its cage in the zoo. She jumped up and leaped forward but the nurse was quick to restrain her.

‘That’s enough, Jeanette! Calm down. Say goodbye to your visitor, that’s a good girl.’

‘She stole my necklace, my Freya’s necklace! Stole all the colours of the rainbow and my jewels. She’s got them!’