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If Debbie can’t get to the clinic, I shall be visiting her at least every fortnight from now on, and I’ll try to convince her. But there’s something else. There’s a boy there, Albert, a child of Freddie’s previous marriage. Aged about seven. Debbie says he’s getting more and more tired, sleeps a lot of the time, has beendoing so for some weeks. And I just wondered if there might be something a bit serious there. I know children of that age tend to be moody but…’
    Ben was obviously interested. ‘Anything specific you had in mind?’
    ‘He had difficulty in finding my hand when I held it out to him. Very poor depth perception.’
    Now Ben was obviously concerned. ‘So you think… a brain problem?’
    ‘I don’t think a scan would be a bad idea,’ Alice said. ‘Of course, I could be completely wrong. I hope I am.’ She knew the dangers of making a fast diagnosis when you didn’t have all of the facts.
    Ben pondered. ‘Like I said, I’ve heard of Freddie Laws. He’s got some peculiar ideas. He thinks he’s getting near to nature, living up here. Well, he’ll have to learn that nature can be harsh and cruel. He thinks that because of the internet, people will just stop working in London and will settle where they like, live how they like. Well, some will, but…’
    He reached for his diary, leafed through it. ‘It looks like being a bright day tomorrow—how do you fancy a trip out into the countryside as soon as we’ve finished work? We could drop in and see Albert—nothing official, just in the neighbourhood…’
    ‘I’ve got some new pamphlets I need to send to Debbie. It’ll be an excuse to deliver them in person.’
    ‘Good. If I think Albert needs attention, we lean on Freddie. Two can lean harder than one. But gently, of course. So that Freddie thinks that whatever we decide is his idea.’
    Alice laughed. ‘Do you know how much you’ve changed? You used to be a bright lad who thought that if the islanders didn’t fall into line, they should be just told what to do. Told by you, the medical expert.’
    He laughed himself. ‘I’ve grown older and I’ve learned. I’m happy in my work and I like the people I work with. After all, I’m one of them. As you are. There’s a bond between us. We’re both islanders.’
    ‘A bond between us.’ She repeated his words because she rather liked them. ‘So you don’t regret moving back here?’
    ‘Never. I could have earned a lot of money in Edinburgh, but I’d have had no time to spend it and no pleasure in spending it. And I always intended to come back here, you know that. And now you’re here, too. Why did you come back?’
    Perhaps she was a little more tired than she realised. After all, today had been her first day of real work. So when he casually asked her why she had come back to Soalay, she decided to tell him. Tell him the full story.
    ‘I had loved the work for fifteen years but I suddenly felt that I had to get away from a prestigious London hospital and the staff’s cut-throat attitude to promotion. And, of course, I was eased out of my job.’
    He had always been a good listener. He leaned over to refill her glass and said, ‘Eased out of your job? That seems a bit of a pity. Seems unlikely, too. What happened?’
    For some reason, now she’d decided to tell Ben her story, she felt quite comfortable about it. He was a good listener. So… ‘I was a high-flyer too. I was running my own department, about to be made Nursing Head of anew centre for both midwifery and child care. Two departments were about to be amalgamated.’
    She needed to steady herself a little and took a gulp of her wine. ‘Anyway, I had a fiancé, Dr Sean Evans, a paediatric registrar. He worked in my hospital, in my department. I said fiancé but he never really asked me to marry him. We lived together. I just thought we’d get round to it in time. I thought I loved him, and because of that I suppose I overlooked what now seem to be his