‘Tom?’

She taps on the en suite door.

‘Tom?’

She tries the door handle. It opens but there’s no one inside.

‘Oh for fuck’s sake.’ She looks at her watch and sets off down the corridor, then jumps as one of the closed bedroom doors opens and Phoenix sticks out his head.

‘Oh, Kate!’ He runs a hand through his hair. His face is sleep lined and tired. ‘I thought I heard someone moving around out here. Peter’s been snoring and I’ve barely slept a—’

‘Where’s Tom?’

‘I dunno.’ He shrugs. ‘In his room?’

Kate tries hard not to roll her eyes. ‘Never mind, go back to bed.’

She makes her way downstairs and checks all the rooms for her husband. Tom’s not in the living area, dining room or kitchen, and he’s not in the therapy room either. She drops down into one of the chairs and digs around in her handbag for her phone. There’s no way she’s going to traipse around the fields to see if he’s gone for a walk. She’ll just ring him instead.

As she taps the button on the side of her phone the screen flashes with notifications. She’s missed several calls. She holds the phone to her ear; maybe one of the messages is from Tom? The first voicemail is from Peter, asking if he can have Caroline’s room seeing as she’s in the hospital. Kate deletes it before he’s even finished speaking. The second is from Renata.

‘Hi Kate, I hope you’re okay. Just to let you know that Tom’s come with me to my parents’ holiday home in Abersoch for a bit of a time out. I think you two need some time apart from the group to sort things out. I don’t know if you’re staying somewhere locally or if you’ve decided to drive back to London but I think it’s important you come back tomorrow. You and Tom need to talk face to face and I think I’d make a good intermediary. Anyway, have a good sleep, get some rest, and I’ll see you in the morning, hopefully. The address is Cas-bach, Lon Traeth, Abersoch, just in case you’ve forgotten. Take care, Kate. Love you! Bye.’

As the message ends Kate stares around the room in confusion. Who the hell does Renata think she is, stepping in to try and save their marriage? And that closing ‘love you’ was totally bizarre. And Tom went along with it? He disappeared off with her, leaving the other guests to fend for themselves? Jesus Christ. She jabs at his number and holds the phone to her ear. The man’s a liability. The sooner she gets him to sign over the company the better. Anything could have happened while they’ve both been away. Their insurance wouldn’t cover them for something happening to an unattended guest.