I ran down the dunes, which is impossible with shoes on, so I paused and whipped them off. Then I raced across to the large gathering on the beach, which had swollen to a couple of hundred people. Luckily the green Bellingdon Water aprons helped. Ted was right; Belinda was very much emphasizing her family's noblesse oblige status today, giving everyone the same broad smile as she served them, but never doing more than move her mouth. I saw her bustle across to Roger at the long row of barbecues which every family had brought down, the Bellingdons’ obviously the biggest, and I realized I had to keep this casual, offhand, no panic. I therefore avoided them both and Peter, too, with Ibby and Theo as he showed them how to turn sausages over without them sticking to the racks. I headed instead for the salad bar, where Christina and Iris were helping people pile their plates.

"Christina, you haven't seen Hugo, have you?" I asked, as nonchalantly as possible.

"He went up to the house to get more burgers. Why? Problem?"

"No, not at all. I met an old friend who was asking after him, that's all. But I'll tell him he'll be back in a mo."

"Hope so, we haven't got nearly enough food. Plus I think we need to feed them quickly as I reckon it's going to rain." She glanced up at the heavy, leaden sky: the air was thickening and contracting as if thunder was imminent. Perhaps signaling the end of the heatwave. She leaned across the table. "And I wouldn't get involved, if I were you, Flora," she added in a low voice. "Belinda is on the warpath and at her very worst today, probably because she's under-catered. Anything you do will be wrong. She's already told me my potato salad is dismal and hasn't got nearly enough seasoning."

“Thanks, I stand warned." I smiled and left her to it, but already, I was somewhere else in my head.

I had a vague idea both she and Iris watched me curiously as I left the beach at speed and fled up the dunes, taking them as if I were out hunting and they were Irish banks, but I was too concerned to care. Not panicked, note, because he'd simply gone back to the house to get burgers, but I badly wanted to find him, set eyes on him and reassure him . . . reassure him of what? That all would be well? It wouldn't. But — yes, with Tommy's help, it would. And I'd help him back with the food, my excuse for going to find him.