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“It’s Anna.”

My heart sank, my skin prickling with anxiety. Anna was physically stable. What had happened to her?

“She’s agitated and won’t let anyone near her. But she keeps asking for you.”

The tension that had suffused into my shoulders relaxed a little. She wasn’t unwell, at least not severely if she was awake and speaking.

We headed down the ward to Anna’s bay, where Sam was standing outside the curtain.

“Malc is in there,” Sam said. “But he’s not having much joy in getting her obs.”

“Get away from me!” Anna shouted in a tone I didn’t recognize from my kind and gentle patient.

“Okay, Anna. I’ll leave you in peace for a bit,” Malc said, his tone soothing.

“I want Nisa,” she said, her voice wobbly.

There was no way I could ignore when someone needed me, and I strode forward to pull the curtain and let myself in. I was heartened by the fact that she remembered me, so hopefully this wasn’t the delirium worsening again.

Malc looked a little harried as he passed me, and I gave his shoulder a reassuring pat.

I closed the curtain behind me. “Hey there, Anna. How are you doing?”

She looked up, and anxiety shot through me when I saw her tearstained face. “Nisa.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” I said, my heart pulsing as I hurried over and crouched next to her chair to take her hand. “What’s the matter? Are you unwell?”

“Not unwell.” She swallowed. “Not physically, anyway.”

I squeezed her hand, my stomach swirling as I anxiously studied her face.

“I remembered,” she said in a whisper.

“What did you remember?” I asked, finding myself whispering back.

“I left my husband, James. And I wanted to take James Junior with me. But James wouldn’t let me.” Fresh tears ran down her face, and I took a tissue from the box on the table in front of her seat and passed it to her. She dabbed at her cheeks. “He said that James Junior was to stay with him, his son, his property. So I said in that case, I was staying too. But he said no, that was it. I’d said I was leaving, so I had made my bed. He took all of my clothes out of the wardrobe, shoved them in a case, and threw it out the front door. He said never to come back.”

Horror shot through me as I listened, unable to fathom how awful that must have been for her.

“I told him that James Junior was my son too. That he needed his mother. And that I would send for him. But he told me if I ever contacted either of them again, or showed my face, then I would regret it.” She looked at me. “I didn’t know what he was capable of, Nisa. He’d never physically hurt us before, but he was so angry, and . . . I was afraid.”

She trailed off, and the distress on her face was so acute that I thought my heart was going to shatter. I put my arms around her and pulled her onto my shoulder. “It’s okay, sweetheart. It wasn’t your fault.” Poor Anna. And poor little James Junior.

“I went to Glasgow to stay with family, and I wrote to James Junior but never heard back. Once he was old enough, I asked him to come to me, but still nothing.” She took a breath. “He must have hated me so much for leaving. That’s why I didn’t hear back.”

I gave her shoulders a squeeze. “He might not have gotten the letters, Anna. Not if his father intercepted them.”

“Perhaps,” she said, her voice quiet. “Then, once James Junior would have been eighteen, the letters started to be returned to sender. And so I thought that was it. They must have moved somewhere else and I had no chance of finding my son.”

I imagined the bone-​crushing sorrow that must have caused for her as a mother and felt like my heart was going to give out. I had to fight to keep the tears from falling and the wobble from my voice. “Did they live in Auchness? Is that where James Junior grew up?”

“Yes, that’s right,” she said, lifting her head. “How did you know?”

I gave her a soft smile. “I worked it out, from what you told me.” I got a fresh tissue for her, and she dabbed her eyes. “Did you ever go back?”

She nodded. “Once. About sixteen years ago. The people living in the house said that the previous owner, James, had died. And that his son had moved to Edinburgh.” Her posture deflated. “I lost hope after that. How was I supposed to find James Junior in Edinburgh?”

My mind was spinning. Could there be any chance of finding him now? Did I know anyone in Edinburgh who could help?