‘Right!’ Tom settles himself into the armchair beside her. ‘Thank you all for coming. I’ll just give you a bit of background about me before we get going. Apologies to anyone who has heard this before, but I know a lot of you are feeling very vulnerable right now and it’s only fair that I open up too. So …’ He takes a slow, steady breath. A silence falls in the room.

‘The elephant in the room,’ Tom continues. ‘Let’s address it straight off. Nine months ago I was released from prison after serving a sentence for the deaths of two people.’

Kate scans the faces around the room and spots expressions of sympathy, awkwardness and sadness. They’re the reactions that she’d expect but two of the guests are acting unusually. Peter, the older man, is sitting forward in his seat, staring intently at Tom, and Geraldine, the woman with the short hair in her early fifties, is frowning. She adds a star next to both of their names then tunes back in to what her husband is saying.

‘I am responsible for those deaths,’ Tom says. ‘I was overconfident, too sure of myself, too trusting in the process. I made mistakes – terrible, terrible mistakes – and, as a result of my failings, two wonderful, kind, beautiful people are no longer with us: Tim Chambers and Bessie Grange. I failed them and I failed their families. I may have left prison but I will never be free of my guilt. I swore to myself that I’d never run another retreat but …’

A beat passes, then another. Several of the guests shift in their seats. Tom doesn’t notice. He’s gazing past them, out of the window, at the stretch of green lawn and the mountains beyond it. Kate clears her throat. The guests are swapping glances, growing increasingly uncomfortable with the prolonged silence. She puts her hand on Tom’s arm and gives it a gentle squeeze. He doesn’t react. She’s going to have to say something if he doesn’t speak soon.

‘But my mind was changed,’ Tom says, making her jump. He taps the back of her hand then subtly pushes it away. ‘I failed Tim and Bessie but there are still people who need my help. You want my help and if I can change even one life then what I’m doing, what I did, isn’t in vain.’

He pauses to take a sip of water from the glass on the table beside him. Kate smiles encouragingly but he doesn’t meet her eye.