‘No joke. There’s a fence to stop people now, but if I remember correctly, Gabe was dared to by a bunch of lads. I tried to stop him and they called me an old fart and jumped anyway. Cut his chin and hurt his guts with the impact. Stupid little devil.’

‘He looks like he might have been a daredevil,’ Chloe said.

‘He was at times,’ Drew chipped in. ‘He took a lot of stick from the local lads, for working in the fish shop, I suppose, and, sadly, his background – not all the kids, only a few morons.’

‘You and Sam must have stuck up for him.’

‘Oh, we did.’

‘Hello!’ Sam walked in, laden down with her laptop and a box. ‘Who stuck up for who?’

Chloe wondered how long Sam had been listening and felt guilty.

‘We were telling Chloe about Gabe jumping from the pub into the harbour,’ said Drew.

Sam frowned. ‘Did he? I don’t remember that.’

‘You were one of the people screaming at him not to,’ said Drew.

‘Was I? Oh – oh, maybe I do now. He stayed under a while, and he’d cut his face. It looked far worse than it was.’

‘He was badly bruised too.’

‘Really? I can remember the blood, but not the bruises.’ Sam put her box on the table. ‘You’d have to ask him about it yourself. By the way, Ben and Zennor can’t make it tonight. They have a big rush job on to design some leaflets for a theme park near Looe. They send their apologies.’

‘No need. They give up so much of their spare time anyway, real work has to come first.’ Chloe bracketed her fingers around the ‘real’.

‘I’ll fill them in on anything important and obviously share the minutes. Are you OK to take them this evening?’

‘Fine,’ Chloe said breezily, relieved that Sam didn’t seem to have taken offence that she’d been talked about. ‘Absolutely fine.’

‘I’ll start making the drinks. What are you having?’ Drew said.

‘I don’t mind making them,’ Chloe said.

‘Let’s both do it,’ Drew said with a firmness that surprised Chloe, then he laughed. ‘You can supervise me.’

So Chloe joined him. Neither of them needed help making three hot drinks, but she knew Drew wanted to be helpful. He started to tell her about his latest charter; a group of insurance executives from Berkshire, who were cocky as hell until they realised what hard work it was crewing a traditional sailing vessel, and that it was slightly different to taking out a mate’s motor cruiser for a jaunt on the Thames. Sam seemed intent on checking through the agenda and laying out copies around the table. Chloe thought she looked a bit tired, not surprising with all the work and stress of the festival, but then, Sam probably thought the same about her.