‘When Hettie began her affair, Mrs Argylle threatened to tell Miss Gillies everything she knew about me if I did not help her. That would have been the end for me.’ She looked up with something like bitterness. ‘I’m not like you. I do not have money or education or good looks. I do not have skills that I can take elsewhere. This is the only home I have ever known and the only place that would ever feel so. Miss Gillies is the one person in the world who cares for me. And so I did what Mrs Argylle asked.’ Her voice fell to a whisper.

‘She made me take the animals up to the stones and she spread the word of Hettie and William’s wickedness. And when that failed she killed Hettie. I left the goodbye letter she wrote for Miss Gillies to find and hid Hettie’s things at Gulls Cry. I did as she asked. She told me that William had seen. I begged him to keep his mouth shut, but it was in his eye whenever she was there. He was not the sort of boy to keep a secret. Not one like that, and Mrs Argylle knew it.’ She gave something like a gasp. ‘I could not believe that she would kill a child, though; I did not dream that she could be that evil. But she was, and after she had done it I saw her face as she regarded Mary. She thought Mary knew as well and she would have got rid of her too, and so, yes, I called Hettie back because Hettie loved them and she would have stopped Mrs Argylle. Then you came and spoiled it.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘I knew that you would not leave well alone.’

‘I have learned something of what happened to you as a child, Greer,’ I said.

Looking down, she picked at a thread on her shawl.

‘I know about your mother and what happened to her, how they treated her. I know that the Gillies sisters made a pet of you but were unkind too.’

She sat so still, so heavy, but her sadness bruised the air.

‘I am sorry for how that must have been. I know what it is to lose a mother, Greer.’

She watched me sullenly.

‘Life was not easy for you. Will you tell me what happened all that time ago?’

She opened then closed her mouth, but her need to confess was too strong.

‘I hurt Miss Gillies and Evangeline. I’m the reason they fell out and the reason she got the burn.’