She’d try and get a selfie of them together, she decided, thundering up the stairs, just to show her friends how hot he was. Ooh! Would he be wearing trunks at the beach? Would he try to kiss her? Help, and what was she going to wear?

Running into the bathroom, Izzie felt more cheerful than she had done in weeks. Now then: shower, blow-dry, make-up . . . she had a lot to do. There was no time to waste!

The temperature rose as the hours passed. The wind dropped away and the humidity stealthily increased, so that customers in outdoor cafés fanned themselves with paper menus and dogs lay panting in the shade. The air felt treacly; it became an effort to move. In cars and buildings, fans and air-conditioning were turned up higher. Men pulled at their shirt collars. Women dabbed their perspiring foreheads. Clouds massed threateningly in the sky, like an army gathering. In gardens around the town, laundry was unpegged and brought inside. There’s a storm coming, people said knowingly to each other.

Em wasn’t too fussed about the weather. At least while they were on the boat, it felt as if some air was still moving around, and she always quite enjoyed the drama of a thunderstorm. In fact despite the heat and general sweatiness of the atmosphere, she would go so far as to say that this was turning out to be the best day of the week so far. Trelissick was gorgeous. Jack had seemingly forgotten the argument in the car and was actually being really sweet with Seren, playing hide-and-seek with her in the woodland. She and George got to hold hands and feel romantic as they gazed out over the views together, as if they were a couple again, and not merely parents on manoeuvres. Without wanting to jinx anything, Em couldn’t help wondering if they might just have cracked this holiday business at last.

Hope all okay with you, she tried texting Izzie, but there was no signal and the message kept failing to send. It was a shame Izzie hadn’t come with them, but then she was sixteen and very hard to dislodge, when digging her heels in. Em hoped she wouldn’t be too bored, all alone there today. Tomorrow she would get Izzie to suggest something she’d like to do with them all, she decided.