The Second Queen of Hirta

Chapter 7: Anne

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Jonathan Kilbride's influence was shorter lived than might have been supposed. He stayed for a week, talked to everyone, including of course the minister, went exploring, and constantly made notes in his notebook (a thing not seen before on Hirta, to my knowledge, though I was told by Mary, who had heard it from Lachlan, that the steward sometimes did this too), but after the second day he was the one who asked all the questions, as we had none left for him. Talk of strange and distant lands was exciting, but since nobody could imagine going to them there was no cause to give them any further thought.

In any case, we all had our work to do, and of course within a few days we were all smitten with the boat cold, so nobody could work any more, and once the illness had passed we had to work all the harder to make up for it. By the time Jonathan Kilbride left, his stories had attained some of the status of those in the Bible. They were to be believed, yes, without doubt, but they were not relevant to our daily lives, and, unlike the Bible tales, not repeated to us over and over. Of course we did not forget about the existence of Scotland and England and Great Britain and Europe and the rest, but it was rare for any of us to think of them without first being reminded of Jonathan Kilbride's visit.