impatiently against the crocodile-skin handbag cradled on her lap.
Flora glanced across at her brother’s profile. The breadth of his shoulders was emphasised by the wide collar of his naval tunic and beneath his cap his sandy hair was cut short, making a stranger of him as he sat watching the distant bustle of activity in the loch.
She switched her gaze to Alec’s back. His shoulders were equally broad, but his cap lay on the back seat beside her and his straight black hair was ruffled by the breeze. The thought of them boarding their ships and facing the dangers out there on the cruel, unforgiving sea filled her with fear. She swallowed to try to relieve the tightness of her throat as she pictured them leaving the safe embrace of the hills surrounding Loch Ewe and heading northwards into the swell of the open sea. Blinking to clear the tears, she caught sight of the reflection of Alec’s smile in the car’s rear-view mirror. He was watching her watching them, his eyes still those of the childhood friend who had always been her champion and protector.
He turned to face her, resting his arm along the back of the driving seat. ‘How’s your father?’ he asked.
In the early years of his youth, Alec had spent more time with the keeper of the estate than he had with his own father. Sir Charles was only ever interested in shooting and fishing with the friends he invited up from London when he came north, and was very often absent from Ardtuath on business in England, leaving Lady Helen and his son to their own devices.
‘He’s well.’ Flora smiled back at him, suddenly conscious of the bagginess of the woollen gansey and the unruly, wind-blown strands of hair that had escaped from her braid. She tucked a wayward lock behind her ear. ‘Busy, now he’s doing the factor’s work, too, but he enjoys having charge of the estate, I think.’
When Sir Charles’s manager had left to join up a few weeks ago, Ruaridh and Flora’s father had quietly stepped in to keep everything running smoothly for Lady Helen in her husband’s absence.
Alec nodded. ‘Ma said he’s doing a great job. My father will be up again soon. Ma’s trying to persuade him to spend more time at Ardtuath. She worries for his safety down in London.’
A blast from a ship’s horn across the water made him turn to face straight ahead again.
‘Time we got going, I think,’ Diana said, pointing at the slim gold watch encircling her wrist.
With a nod, Alec turned the key in the ignition and reversed the car. They drove the final stretch to the jetty in silence and then Alec drew up alongside a pile of creels to let the Gordons out. He shook hands again with Ruaridh. ‘Be seeing you at the other end, then. It’ll be good knowing you’re not far off.’ At the same time, he turned and reached his left hand back towards Flora, mooring the three of them together for a moment. He gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze. ‘Keep safe. And knit me one of those scarves, if you have the time. It’ll certainly be welcome up there on the northern seas.’ With a salute, he turned the car and drove away, leaving Flora and Ruaridh to say their own goodbyes.
After she’d waved her brother off, Flora watched from the jetty until the launch had heaved-to alongside the Ordie, and then she turned away. The breeze had stiffened with the chill of evening and she hugged the folds of her jumper around her as she walked back in the direction of Keeper’s Cottage. At the little cemetery, she pushed open the wishing gate and went in, past the wind-sculpted yew tree, picking her way through the clusters of granite gravestones to one that stood a short way up the hill.
She knelt among the tufts of cotton grass that bowed their soft white heads over the mossy blanket covering the grave.
‘Hello, Mum,’ she said. ‘Ruaridh came home today. He’s looking well. He’s off tonight on one of those ships out there, headed north.’ She cleared a wisp of moss away from the headstone, tracing with the tips of her fingers the incised letters spelling out her mother’s name and the name of the baby sister she’d never known, who had died together when Flora was two years old.
‘Alec came back, too.’ She paused, adrift in her thoughts.
Then, just before she turned to go, she whispered,