Viola was stunned by how easily these fabrications came, one lie after another. Why was she doing this? Because we don’t like Leah Cedars hanging around with Mr Hailey, she told herself. Viola could be the one to put an end to that. Saul deserved better than Leah, but what the heart wants, the heart wants. Viola was a cherub, Saul had said so himself. Viola could play Cupid.

‘That’s where Leah’s mind is at right now,’ Viola continued, feeling a certain light-headedness to be talking this way, so far from the truth. ‘She’s all about settling down and having babies, and of course she wants to do that with someone from the island. And, well, after what you did for her at the Council meeting the other night…’

The man beamed, literally beamed, light from the window glancing off his skin – a child awarded a gold star. Viola waited for guilt to stab – it didn’t. No one was being hurt, after all. Having Leah would make Saul happy. Having Mr Hailey free from Leah’s grasp would please the Eldest Girls.

Saul’s expression changed then, a shift to something more meditative.

‘I’ve been thinking about how you like to wander about the island with your dog,’ he said carefully, measuring out his words, ‘and I’ve been thinking about how Leah likes you and how you’re also friends with those girls.’

Viola put down her tea, sloshing it onto the desk. Was he about to point out how incompatible these friendships were? Was he going to catch her in her lie? Dot started to lick at the tea that dripped from desk to floor.

‘So, I was wondering if I could give you this.’ He plucked a black radio from a charging station on the window ledge and offered it to Viola. She turned it over in her hands, twisting at one of the dials.

‘Don’t,’ he said, ‘leave it on channel eight. You’ll reach me on that one.’

Then he got down on his knees to unplug the charging station, wrapping the cable through the prongs of the plug and handing this piece of kit to Viola too.

‘What’s this for?’ she asked.

‘I wondered if you could keep an eye on…’

‘The girls?’ Viola put in.

‘Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Just like Leah said, but…’ He drove his hands into the pockets of his black trousers, took them out again, twitched at the epaulettes of his shirt, then at the end of his tie. ‘But also an eye on Leah, if you see her.’ Viola nodded slowly – this was the crux of it. ‘Report back, you know. Tell me anything that seems… I don’t know, worrying.’ He couldn’t look Viola in the eye.

‘Spy on her?’ she clarified. Before adding, meanly, ‘Spy on your girlfriend?’