She flung herself into me and buried her damp head to my chest. Wordless, I sank to my knees and held her until the fear had passed. I was too empty for talk, too shocked to speak, and when we rose, I could only put one foot in front of the other. Greer had already gone.

43

The hall at Iskar was still – peat smoke and dust. I was shivering. I sent Mary upstairs to change but I could not move. Greer came through from the scullery and placed my case upon the tiles. I had not seen her take it from the boat.

‘I thought you hated me,’ I said.

‘Perhaps I do.’

Her face was waxy, her eyes masked, and she shrugged her shoulders and left. I climbed the stairs to get out of my wet things. Afterwards, I crept into Mary’s room where she sat, draped in her counterpane.

‘Are you cold?’ I asked.

‘A little.’ Her cheeks were very pink.

‘What happened?’

‘Hettie came, Elspeth. She took Bridget into the water.’ Her eyes were bright with shock.

‘You loved Hettie.’

She nodded. ‘But I love you better.’

‘Let me get you something hot from the kitchen.’

She looked at me shyly. ‘I’d rather you sat here.’ So I sat beside her and put my hands over hers.

‘Shall we tell Miss Gillies what happened?’

She shook her head.

‘Did you make any of the pebbles?’ I asked, curiously.

‘Greer showed me. She told me they would help bring them back if I wanted them enough. They did come back, but then they left again and I did not use them after what you said.’

Mary believed that she had brought William and Hettie. At some point I would tell her the whole truth. Not now.

‘Where’s Bobbity?’

‘She fell in the water.’

‘I’m sorry.’

But she laid her head against me. ‘It’s all right, Elspeth.’

We sat for a while and then I stood. ‘There’s something I must do.’

In the kitchen, I heated water and found whisky and honey and made up a drink. The stairs to the servants’ quarters were narrow. My candle flickered on the crumbling plaster and cold blew in from beneath doors.

At the top, I paused. Mrs Lenister’s snoring drifted in the passageway. I tiptoed along the corridor to Greer, knocked and went in. She was sitting on the bed, the covers around her shoulders. Although she barely acknowledged me, she took the drink.

‘How did you know that we were planning to leave tonight?’

‘Mrs Argylle told me.’

I remembered what she had called from the rocks, that she would no longer lie. ‘What has been your part, Greer?’

She stared at me, half angry, half sad. Then she leaned her chin on her palms and sighed.

‘A long time ago, I took a confession to the minister, but Mrs Argylle heard all that I said to him.