‘Sit, sit,’ she commanded. ‘You have no need to stand on ceremony here. You’re not in Edinburgh now.’

I moved a pile of unspun sheep’s wool from a settle, placing it carefully on the only remaining space on the table, and sat.

‘So,’ she did not look at me, ‘you came to see me after all. How is Iskar?’ She had strong features and low, falcon-like brows.

I framed my thoughts. Heat from the range warmed the room, and the scent of herbs grew stronger. There was something soothing in the rhythm of her strong hands.

‘What did you mean by your words? What is not well?’

‘I thought when I saw you that you looked like nobody’s fool. Surely, you are learning their lives by now?’

‘Of course.’ I laid my hands on my lap.

‘What do you know?’

‘I would prefer that you told me what you were so keen to before. I cannot be disloyal to my new employer.’

At this, she laughed. ‘There’s no point having airs here, Miss Swansome. Why else did you come but to hear me?’ She pushed the bowl away and regarded me with something like sympathy. ‘I’m sure you’re a good girl. You’re not old either. What are you? Twenty? Twenty-two?’

‘I am twenty-four,’ I said.

‘See, so young, and I can tell by your manner that you have come from privilege.’

‘Even those from money can suffer some of the same griefs and misfortunes as those who don’t,’ I said.

‘This is true and nicely put.’ She sighed a little and looked at me more closely. ‘You have been no stranger to sadness.’

I did not reply but the gentleness with which she spoke momentarily threatened to unlock my sorrow. There was a pause filled by the screech of gulls.

‘I know about Hettie and William,’ I said.

‘What you may have been told, may not be the whole truth. I say this kindly. Hettie had a gift for second sight, did you know? She would have been wiser to keep it to herself.’

‘For second sight?’ I looked at her with surprise. ‘I had not heard that. It sounds as if people believed her.’

A strange look passed over her features. ‘She had not been here six months when she predicted a storm that would take a life. Two days later a gale stopped one of the boats trying to get back to safety and her prediction proved true. One of our boys drowned that day.’

I had not expected that and for a moment I was shocked, but storms here were common enough and must surely risk the lives of those at sea. I did not believe that such foresight existed, and to use the vagaries of the weather to build a reputation for second sight was repugnant. ‘That sounds like a prediction born of luck.’