‘Can he swim?’ Ethan asked a frantic Jane, as he untied his boots. They both watched Luke balance his rod and wave at both of them again, not concentrating on his actions and deafened by the roar of the river in flood.

Jane shook her head. She screamed as Luke picked his way on the slime-covered stones, only to lose his footing, his rod flying up into the air as he bounced off the moss-covered rocks through the gushing white falls into the deep, dark pool below.

‘Stay there, I’ll jump in and get him.’ Ethan pulled off his waistcoat and pocket watch and quickly jumped into the pool, leaving Jane at the side, frantically yelling Luke’s name and peering into the frothy waters of the river. The cold water caught his breath as he dived below the falls, filling his lungs with icy shards while searching deep down for the white shirt of Luke. Ethan gasped for breath as he surfaced and then dived again, after noticing Luke’s body trapped between two boulders at the side of the falls.

Jane watched, counting every second that both were under the water, fearing the worst for her brother.

Ethan appeared spluttering, pulling Luke behind him as he splashed awkwardly out of the side of the pool. ‘Go and get your father – he’s alive, but he’s hit his head and is bleeding badly.’ Struggling with Luke, Ethan pulled the boy’s body out of the water and laid it on the sand and shingle at the pool’s edge. ‘Go, Jane, go and get help.’

She froze for a second or two as tears ran down her face while she gazed on the lifeless body of her brother. Blood ran down his forehead, staining his white shirt and trickling into the water’s edge.

‘For God’s sake, go!’ Ethan yelled as he pummelled Luke’s chest to clear his lungs of water.

Jane fled just as Luke was drawing breath. He coughed and spluttered as Ethan talked gently to him and sat him up, before pulling off his own shirt in order to tear a shred off to bandage Luke’s bleeding head. Ethan watched and said a silent prayer as Luke whispered his name. Thank God he’d not drowned; he would have been to blame, that was for sure, and he was certain he would have lost both his own and his family’s positions, if Jane had opened her mouth.

‘You’re alright, mate, you fell down the bloody falls. We are going to have to learn you to swim this summer.’ Ethan leaned back and watched Luke gain his breath, looking up at the green foliage of the whispering trees above, as they swayed quietly in the gentle summer breeze. He waited for what felt like an age before Jane appeared, with her father and Ethan’s behind her.