Chapter FivePort-nan-loch in the island of Ulvust consisted of a cluster of dry-stone, heather-thatched houses scattered around a sea-loch, where leaden waves washed a coast of rocks festooned with seaweed. Most of the cottages were long and heavy, thick-walled against the weather, smeared with peat smoke and with small, deep-set windows that peered out toward the sea. Dogs ran beside groups of children, hens roamed free, and the occasional dun-coloured cow or shaggy sheep hunted the coast for anything edible. The island stretched around, with crofts and cottages crouched low under an infinity of sky.
Ranald MacDonald escorted Prancer to a shallow bay in the shelter of a rubble-built breakwater and waited to greet Nicolson and the crew as they thankfully disembarked.
'Bad voyage?' Ranald
