‘No, Thea. You did everything you could. We both did.’

What on earth can they be talking about? Thea has never given me any indication that life is anything short of perfect for them both, but something has obviously hurt her – someone important in her life has gone.

They are quiet again, and I hear the sound of glasses being placed on the table and a muttered ‘Thank you’ from Garrick. They give the waiter time to move away.

I would really like to roll off this sun lounger and crawl away from here on my hands and knees. I don’t want to listen to Thea’s unhappiness or Garrick’s rather uncomfortable response to whatever is causing her so much grief, but I am sure they would hear me if I were to move. All I can do is lie here and wish I was somewhere else.

They are quiet for a few minutes. I know they are still there, though, because I hear the pages of a magazine being turned rather too quickly for them to have been read and glasses being placed, more gently now, on the table.

‘Another?’ Garrick asks after a while.

‘Yes please.’

I imagine him signalling the waiter and hear him place another order.

‘I’m sorry about my little outburst, dear,’ Thea says. ‘I’m okay most of the time. I just had a tiny wobble.’

Garrick grunts in his usual way. ‘The girl seems to be making things easier for you,’ he says.

The girl? Could he mean me? I can’t see who else it could be, and if spending time with me has helped Thea forget some sadness in her life, I’m delighted. She has saved me from losing my sanity on this holiday, and quite honestly I don’t know what I would have done without her.

‘She is, and I’ll be sorry to say goodbye to her. Focusing on someone else’s problems always makes one’s own slightly less all-consuming.’ It’s definitely me she’s talking about. She waits a beat. ‘Don’t you think she looks like—’

‘Of course I do,’ Garrick answers quickly. His voice softens again. ‘And I’m glad it’s helping.’

I hear some shuffling, a creak from the rattan chair, and I realise one of them is getting up.

‘I’m going to the room. I think I’ll have a lie-down. Are you coming, Thea?’

There is no response, but I know they have gone. I don’t need to lift my head to check. I can feel their absence.

Thank God they don’t know I heard them.

CHAPTER 13

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