“Harry Duggan is a gossip,” Hæra growled. “He speaks all sorts of nonsense.”

“I’m pretty good at figuring out what’s nonsense and what isn’t. Comes from teaching high school.” She took a deep breath. “And I meant you picking me up.”

Hæra frowned. “You fell. And you cried out.”

“I was just startled, not hurt.”

“I couldn’t know that.” Hæra’s gaze sharpened, though not like it had in the lobby, when Madeleine had been afraid she’d say something unforgivable to Harry. “Do you wish I hadn’t done it?”

Why had Hæra asked that? You shall not lie to one another was one of the Ten Commandments. Madeleine worried her lip and went for something both true and acceptable. “I appreciate the thought. I know you wanted to help.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have.” Hæra pursed her lips. “It’s not always best to move people if they might have broken something. I wasn’t thinking.”

Fair enough. From the moment Hæra’s arms went around her, Madeleine hadn’t been thinking either. “Well, nothing’s broken, or even sprained. You’re…um…”

“I’m what?”

“Strong,” Madeleine mumbled. “Must come from lifting hay bales or whatever.”

Hæra didn’t look pleased, as she might have expected. Instead, she gazed away into the distance. “We’re closer to the ocean here than on the farm. I can hear the waves if I listen closely enough.”

What did that have to do with anything? “I can’t seem to.”

“I have excellent hearing. Now, where do you want to go? Have you eaten?”

“Not yet. I was going to have something at the ferry.”

“The ferry?” Hæra looked alarmed. “You’re leaving the island again?”

“Yes. I’m going to see something I missed out on six years ago.”

“What is it?”

Madeleine tilted her chin up, looked into those eyes, and felt the memory of strong arms around her. Another memory—her father’s voice—admonished her, warned her against the feelings that swallowed her like the sea.

Today, even if just for today, Madeleine would drown the voice instead.

“Come with me,” she told Hæra, “and find out.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

The tour bus to Skara Brae slowed as the road narrowed and led into a parking lot. Pedestrians crossed to and fro, not seeming to take much notice of the enormous vehicle bearing down on them. On the other side of the parking lot sat a visitor center where people, some of them clearly in tour groups, swarmed around the doors.

Skara Brae was Orkney’s most famous prehistoric human settlement—not as old as the settlement on Jorsay, but more complete. It consisted of ten flagstone houses, some of which still had their original stone-built furniture. There was even a primitive sewer system. Even with her head and heart in a whirl, Madeleine was excited to see it.