Page 98 of The Midnight Secret

Effie hesitated. It was the question everyone had been asking her and she’d been hedging her answer for weeks. ‘...Let’s just say I’m helping them with finding something.’

‘Oh, don’t tell me,’ Flora groaned. ‘He needs a precious bird’s egg for his collection and only you can find it?’

‘Not the earl. MacLeod. And no, he’s looking for something else.’

Beside her, Jayne felt Norman straighten up. ‘Like what?’

‘I can’t say,’ Effie replied enigmatically. ‘I’ve been sworn to secrecy.’

‘Och, give us a clue,’ Mhairi pleaded, pressing her hands together in prayer.

‘I wish I could, but I gave my word I wouldn’a say a thing till it’s safely recovered.’

‘But you can tell us!’ Norman insisted.

‘My word is my bond,’ Effie shrugged. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘...Ridiculous,’ Norman muttered, stalking off.

Flora grinned. ‘He’s as grumpy as ever, I see...Ah, sorry, Jayne. No offence intended.’

‘None taken. He’s the man he always was.’

Except that wasn’t true. Norman had become worse since moving over to the mainland, leaning into all his vices and darkest corners. Variety had given him opportunities, choices – and he wasn’t making wise ones.

Jayne watched her husband cross the room to get another drink. He stood almost a head taller than the other men, so he was easy to follow. He stopped at the table beside David, who glanced across as he was putting a slice of pie onto his plate. Jayne saw Norman say something to David in a rare show of sociability, but to her astonishment David put down his plate and walked away, leaving Norman hanging, mid-sentence.

Norman looked astounded for a moment, a black look darkening his handsome features. Then he glanced round to check whether anyone had seen. Quickly she turned back to the women’s conversation as she felt his gaze settle upon her.

‘– when I left, there was no indication she was going to do what she did. She was...she was calm. We didn’t part on hostile terms.’

Lorna? Jayne leaned in as Mhairi put a hand on Flora’s arm.

‘Y’ mustn’t blame yourself,’ Mhairi said. ‘You did nothing wrong going over there after her; they took your baby under false pretences. Following them was the only thing you could do.Shewas the one who had to live with what she’d done,and...well, perhaps the fact that she couldn’t live with it speaks to some scrap of humanity left in her after all.’

Flora nodded, seeming to find comfort in her friend’s words.

‘There’s no excusing what she did to you, but you and I both saw her kindness too. She wasn’t a complete monster. Not like Mary.’

‘Talking of whom – what’s become of her?’ Effie asked.

‘Don’t worry, she’s not coming tonight. She knows she’d not be welcome here.’

‘Wait—’ Mhairi looked stunned. ‘...You mean she’shere?In Scotland?’

‘Aye. She’s in the guesthouse we’re staying in, down the road.’

Jayne watched Mhairi’s hands fly to her belly. She was showing clearly now, her shame there for all to see, although the St Kildans made sure she suffered no waspish comments in the village. But if Mary would only grant Donald a divorce...

‘So,’ Effie was looking pained. ‘The baby...?’

‘He’s with her too.’ For the first time since she’d come through the door, Flora’s happy demeanour slipped. ‘...We’ve come to an arrangement.’

‘An arrangement?’ Effie frowned.

Flora gave a deep sigh. ‘We’ve had to accept we can’t prove that...that Struan is actually ours. All the paperwork – his birth certificate, passport, the evacuation census – it’s in the McKinnons’ names. It’s Donald and Mary who are down as his parents. Lorna could have stood as our independent witness, but...well, that chance went away with her.’

Flora’s face had fallen. Everyone could guess at the depths of the suffering she must have endured these past eight months while trying to get her baby back.

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