Amy crawled back and put her arms around James and they sat like that for a long time in silence.

They sailed past Terranova and continued north-westward, keeping the island always to their left. It was late afternoon when the Maddalena Islands came into view and James pointed out the great rocky pile of Capo d’Orso and the wind-carved rock in the shape of a crouching bear.

How comforting and familiar this part of the island seemed to him. The prickly pears and the low umbrella pines, the little secluded inlets, the pink rocks and above it all the bear, which had watched over this stretch of coast for countless thousands of years, ignoring the insignificant comings and goings of the people below.

They steered around the headland, and there was the beach with its clean, white sand. The beach where James had swum with Mauro.

How long ago that all seemed now, and how peaceful this place remained. They had escaped the madness and were safe at last.

They manoeuvred the boat into the shelter of a big rock and took down the sail. All day they had been aware of the wind flapping in the canvas, but now there was just the sound of the water gently lapping against the hull.

James’s hair was matted with salt and his skin felt like it had been rubbed with sandpaper; his lips were gritty and swollen; all he wanted to do was get into the cool water.

‘Come along,’ he said and tore off his ragged clothes and dived in. Amy followed him, neither of them caring about their nakedness.

The water felt like a soothing caress on James’s skin, washing away all the pain and heat. He luxuriated in it, twisting and turning, swimming to the bottom, then drifting up and floating on the surface. Finally he swam slowly to the shore and crawled on to the sand, where he lay half in the water and half out.

He felt as if he could just lie here and sleep for a thousand years.

Amy lay next to him and they stayed there face to face, looking into each other’s eyes, wordlessly sharing something, a knowledge of all they had been through.

At last James summoned the energy to raise his head.

‘We should secure the boat and get up to the villa,’ he croaked.

‘Can’t we stay a moment longer, James?’ said Amy. ‘This is so heavenly.’

‘Five more minutes, then.’

When they felt strong enough, they swam back out to the boat and climbed in. James realised just how exhausted he was when he could barely lift himself over the side. At last they dressed and grabbed the two small paddles from under the seats.

Wearily, they rowed round to the little natural harbour to moor the boat. Everything looked exactly as it had done when James had left.

Victor’s dinghy sat there, ready for an outing.

Victor?

Would he be here?