An Island Apart by Lillian Beckwith Page A

so much she must know before she could consider giving him her decision. ‘Are there no other crofters on your Island?’ she pursued.
    â€˜Not a one. Not since many years back about the time of the evictions, my father used to say.’
    â€˜They were forced to go?’
    â€˜No, but the Laird at the time was so hard on them that they chose to go.’
    â€˜Those were cruel days,’ she mused. ‘I mind the old folk telling such sad stories at the ceilidhs ever since I was a wee bairn. They must have suffered terribly.’
    â€˜It was nigh on a hundred years ago,’ he reminded her.
    â€˜My Granny used to tell me that her own Granny used to croon such a sad song saying they were left with nothing but the burial ground,’ she continued.
    â€˜But it was sorted after a while,’ he soothed.
    â€˜It was a long enough while before it was sorted,’ she contested. ‘Folks still had bitter memories that had been told to them.’
    â€˜True,’ he agreed. ‘And I’m thinking life wasn’t all that easy after the settlement. My own grandparents were poor enough. My father had to go and work as a herd boy for the Laird when he was very young and I mind him saying to us that the Laird was a mean and unjust man that would grudge him the wee bowl of oatmeal he’d get for his wages.’ He frowned. ‘But the time came when the Laird took to the gay life in the South and squandered all his money till he had to dispose of the whole estate including the Island.’
    â€˜I’d say it served him right,’ Kirsty murmured.
    â€˜Aye, but the crofters were gey worried when they heard the new Laird was to be an Englishman I can tell you. But they need not have worried. He turned out to be a good and fair man and treated his employees and his tenants well enough. My father worked as a shepherd for him and was often enough on the Island to see to the sheep. He got to know it well and thought a lot of it. He had the Laird’s son over on the Island with him one day and my father mentioned to him that it had been worked by the crofters until they abandoned it. When the Laird himself heard of it he immediately offered the Island to any crofters who were keen to go back there.’
    â€˜And did they?’ she asked.
    â€˜Ach, they wouldn’t listen to him. Folks were petitioning to be taken off the Islands at that time, not wanting to go and live on them.’ After a short pause he went on, ‘It was said it was mostly the womenfolk fearing they’d be too isolated that stopped the men from going.’ He gave her a wavering smile before shaking his head. ‘It was a pity right enough, seeing they would have had near three hundred acres of fairly good land they could have portioned among themselves. But no, they’d have none of it. They were all wanting easier crofts on the mainland.’
    â€˜I suppose one couldn’t blame them for that,’ Kirsty commented. ‘And yet your parents went there?’
    â€˜Well, how that came about was when the Laird’s own son came of age he asked his father to give him the Island so he could try farming it himself. His father not only agreed but he built him a fine house with the stone from some of the old ruined cottages that had been abandoned. It was a good strong house, too, with three rooms and a kitchen, and a tiled roof rather than just the thatch that was used at the time. It was newly finished just when the war broke out and the son went off to be an officer. The poor laddie never came back. My own father was in the war, too, but he wasn’t even wounded and when he came back he had it in his mind that he wanted to marry my mother who was cook at the Laird’s house on the mainland. When he spoke of this wish the Laird offered my father the Island and the house there as a wedding gift in recognition of his and my mother’s loyal service.’
    â€˜He must have