My heart pounded. "I know."

We regarded one another: his strong features were framed by salty graying curls, whipped around in the breeze. His weathered face showed his years of research and academic study, his time by the coast, by the sea. His life.

“Ted, I know you're horrified," I said quietly. "And I understand that. It is horrific."

"Years of neglect, years!" His face tightened with anger. "And if I'm right — covered up, in a frantic, cowardly fashion. Known about, there's the rub, Flora. Aware that pipes were leaking raw sewage, that fish poisoning was endemic, protracted — and not stopped! It's one thing to be unaware of corroded pipes under the sea, the ground, but to know and cover it up! To submit fictitious reports, fairy-tale stories about detailed repairs and maintenance that never happened — it makes my blood boil!”

"I know, I know. And I feel it, too. I lived here, I grew up here. I'm a native, Ted. I love these beaches, these waters."

I watched him take this on board. He couldn't speak, but he nodded curtly in acknowledgement.

"All I'm asking—" I said as levelly as I possibly could, knowing he was on the brink.

"What are you asking?"

"All I'm asking for is some time. Just, please, give Bellingdon some time."

“To what?"

“To fess up. To go to the Environment Agency, to let them do it. Tell the truth."

“They won't," he sneered. "Or if they do, they'll fudge it. Make excuses, cite environmental problems – the weather, frost – as they did before. No, Flora, I'm blowing the whistle. I want them and I want them badly. I want them all over the front pages of the papers. I want them dead in the water they poison."

My breathing was very irregular but I kept it together. "I understand that, Ted. I understand, after all your years of research, clean-up operations, and – and the fact that someone is deliberately doing this, I understand you want your pound of flesh. But I'm asking you to do this for me."

"While you talk to Hugo."

"Yes."

"Who you're still in love with, I know that, Flora."

"At our age we've had a lot of loves in our lives. Still have some. You know that, too."

He looked away and narrowed his eyes out to sea. His arms linked around his bare knees in his shorts. The sky was gray and lowering now. After a while he spoke. "Are you threatening me, Flora? Do this for me or we won't have a relationship? I won't have supper, I won't be your girlfriend – is that it?"

"Of course not." Yes. Definitely. But that particular die was already cast, in any event. And I also knew what he was going to say. He shook his head.