Page 53 of The Scottish Island Wedding

‘Oh. How irregular.’ Elizabeth looked as if she had just found something horrid on the bottom of her shoe. ‘Still, I suppose that we must accept that this wedding will be a little… unusual. As long as you don’t launch into some sort of anarchic diatribe about the golf course protestors.’ Elizabeth looked at Heather over the top of her glasses. Her tone suggested that by protestors, she meant terrorists or even criminals.

‘Of course not. I just want to thank my mum and dad, my sisters, that kind of thing,’ Heather replied smoothly. ‘Of course, I could list all the different types of wildlife that your golf course is going to destroy. But that would be inappropriate.’

‘Oh, the wildlife.’ Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

‘Well, I appreciate there’s probably more wildlife here than, say, Drumchapel,’ Heather said, meeting Elizabeth’s stare. ‘But we like it.’

‘Drumchapel?’ Elizabeth’s face drained of colour. ‘Why would you say that?’

‘No reason.’ Heather raised an eyebrow. ‘I wondered if you knew it. Very urban.’

‘No, I don’t know it.’ Elizabeth continued to stare at Heather. The letter had been playing on Heather’s mind, despite Matty and Annie assuring her it was nothing.

The Campbells of Glenorchy are disreputable and not to be trusted. Elizabeth Campbell is a fake and a liar. Ask her about Drumchapel.

‘It will provide lots of jobs, though, won’t it? Bring people to this remote little island.’ Estella broke in to the conversation.

‘We don’t need more people. There are enough here,’ Violet replied. ‘That’s the way we like it on the island. People are overrated.’

‘What would you know? You don’t live here. Gadding about the world, talking about make-up, so I hear,’ Estella broke in. ‘You can’t very well speak for the islanders.’

‘I don’t. I’m just expressing an opinion. And it’s my job to “gad about and talk about make-up”. Jealous that I have a job?’ Violet shot back.

‘I have a job,’ Estella argued.

‘Oh, right. At the foundation,’ Violet countered. ‘Like that’s a real job. What do you even do?’

Elizabeth cut in. ‘Fundraising, mostly, and it’s very important work.’

‘Technological research is very vague,’ Primrose interjected. ‘What kind of technology does the foundation research, and why?’

‘Well, if you must know, we do healthcare research,’ Clara interrupted.

‘Healthcare in what way?’ Heather asked.

‘Women’s health,’ Elizabeth interrupted. ‘We provide funding for research into under-researched gynaecological issues such as PMDD, endometriosis and adenomyosis. These are issues that affect millions of women worldwide, and for which there is no known cure at present. Typically, research into women’s health has suffered a lack of interest from the medical community in the past. We aim to change that.’

‘Oh.’ Heather was flabbergasted. ‘I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I had no idea. That’s… that’s actually really wonderful.’

‘Yes. It is. It’s a passion of mine,’ Elizabeth said shortly. ‘I’ve suffered with endometriosis for many years. I wanted to do something about it.’

‘Well, that told us,’ Primrose muttered. ‘Good for you, Liz.’

Elizabeth looked as if she was about to correct Primrose, but then she smiled.

‘Thank you, Primrose,’ she said, sitting down. ‘Let’s eat, shall we?’

There was a silence for a while as the starter was served: a flavoursome beetroot soup with a goat’s cheese swirl. Clara and Estella had it without the goat’s cheese. Heather reached for a warm granary roll and a generous pat of butter.

‘When did you start the foundation, Elizabeth?’ Heather asked, breaking the silence. ‘I’d love to know more about it.’

Finally, Heather felt like she’d found a way in past Elizabeth’s armour. This was something they could bond over.

‘Oh.’ Elizabeth looked surprised. ‘Well, I began it in 2015, a couple of years after I was first diagnosed with endometriosis. I’d found a very good gynaecologist and nutritionist who helped me, but I realised at that point that I was lucky to be able to afford specialists to get that help in the first place.’ Elizabeth took a sip of wine, looking thoughtful. ‘Most people with female reproductive biology who suffer from endometriosis take, on average, eight years to be diagnosed. And that’s not even including other gynaecological conditions such as PMDD, adenomyosis, menopause, polycystic ovary syndrome and a whole raft of other things.

‘Then, I realised, when I was asking questions, even of those qualified specialists, that there were many questions that just didn’t have answers. Not because those specialists weren’t wonderful, educated professionals, but because there just wasn’t the research there for them to refer to. I found out that research into gynaecological matters is drastically underfunded – therefore, no one does the research.’

‘Why is it underfunded?’ Violet asked. ‘These are conditions that affect half of the population.’