Can you remember the parable about the prodigal son and how his father killed the fatted calf when he returned home? Well, that did not happen at my homecoming. Instead, Mother looked me up and down, said: "aye; you"re home then," and got on with her spinning. That was my welcome back to Cardrona Tower. No fanfares, no beating of drums, or sounding of trumpets. A few words and a look, yet I was still glad to be home, in familiar surroundings and surrounded by friendly faces.
Yet although everything was the same, everything seemed different. It was not of course: the Lethan was the same; it was me that had changed. I had been outside the confines of the Lethan Valley, I had experienced violence and theft, I had met a great many very unpleasant men and I had my first visitation of the Tweed
