“You’ll love it. Can’t say we get much sunshine, and watch out for the wind. You missed a bugger of a storm last night. I spent all morning cleaning up. Still, there’s nowhere better on Earth. And you’ve picked a grand time to stay on Jorsay. We’ve got new things coming up, but it’s not overrun with tourists like the Mainland. Not that anything’s wrong with tourists,” he added quickly. “I can tell you’re the right sort, not here to run folk over with a bicycle or complain that the food’s different to home.”

“I’m not,” Madeleine agreed. “New things on the island?”

“Right! Well, we’ve got some lads who work at the oil terminal, but that’s not enough to make us rich, is it? And fishing’s worse. Then, a few years ago, a local fella started a sheep farm that’s done better’n anyone would’ve thought, and it’s bringing in money. Money’s good, right?”

Madeleine nodded. It’d be a waste of breath to speak.

“Keeps more people here working in the spring,” Duggan continued. “He deals with local businesses—Annie’s Crafts only uses Rendall wool now, and there isn’t a restaurant in the islands where you won’t find his sheep in a shepherd’s pie. Fine, healthy animals. Fetch a high price at market too. Have you ever seen a sheep farm?”

“No, I…”

“Right, course you haven’t. Good soul he is. Was a sot for a long time, but he’s turned himself right around—well, you can change, can’t you? Of course, it all happened after that lass showed up. Funny how it worked.” He leaned across the desk and then glanced to the left and right, as if checking for eavesdroppers. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”

That was undoubtedly true. Madeleine said quickly, “I don’t need to⁠—”

“Then again, it’s not a secret, is it? His daughter arrived on his doorstep in need of a home—covered in bruises and cuts no less! Might have been running from a cruel fella, but it’s not for me to say. I expect that’d make you clean yourself up, wouldn’t it, if your lost bairn just appeared in need of help?”

Harry Duggan was surely proof that gossip kept small towns alive. “I guess, but…”

“Mind you, there’s something off about her. We all say so.” Harry’s eyes glittered for a moment, lighting up with more perception than Madeleine was comfortable with. “Not to his face, of course. But thanks to him, Jorsay’s got more than the chippy and the pub. Got a proper bakery and everything. A fancy clothes shop, even, if you’d like to buy something nice.”

Madeleine managed not to glance down at her jacket, sweater, and jeans, which admittedly didn’t look very nice.