‘Will you?’ he asks and his blue eyes bore into hers.

She sees a flicker of doubt. He doesn’t believe that she will. And why would he, when she let him down all those years ago? But she solemnly promises.

He leans forward and kisses her on the cheek, but she remains motionless. As he walks away she almost calls out after him because she has to know. Did she break his heart? Like she broke her own? Did it hurt as much for him as it had done for her?

The rest of the day is a blur and she hardly registers it when Dominica announces that it’s time to go back to Brighton. Helga can tell that the day has done her the world of good and that she’s been cheered up by seeing her family and swimming in the pond, but she knows, too, that she’s let Dominica down, by being weird and quiet.

But she can’t help it. She can’t help going over and over the encounter. Linus is here. In the UK. She clamps her hand around the notebook in her pocket. She has his number. And he wants to talk. She can hardly believe it.

She feels very strange, her chest tight with a knot, right in the middle. She knows there’s been a seismic shift, like an earthquake under the seabed and she’s grateful that Dominica doesn’t press her on the drive home. But as the familiar shape of the South Downs come into view, she finally cracks, when Dominica says, ‘So, are you going to tell me what’s going on?’

‘Sorry.’

‘What’s bugging you?’

‘Oh … I don’t know. Everything. The past.’

‘The past?’ Dominica asks, confused.

Today has made Helga feel old in so many ways but seeing Linus has been like she’s been thrown a rope back to the past. Back to the daredevil, risk-taking girl she used to be. ‘I thought I was scared of the future, but maybe it’s the past that’s the difficult thing to face …’

‘You want to stop talking in riddles and tell me what’s going on? I’m guessing it’s something to do with that guy you were talking to?’

Helga nods and she watches the rosy hues of the sunset as she tells Dominica about Linus and how she’d always wondered about him, how there’d always been a flame in her heart for him.

‘Oh, I see. So he was the one,’ Dominica says, referring to their earlier conversation. ‘You never answered before.’

‘Oh, yes,’ Helga admits, because all of her seems to be leaking out. Everything that has been brittle and icy is suddenly water. ‘He was the only man I ever truly loved.’

‘I’m glad it was that. I thought you might be having a heart attack.’

‘I thought I was when I saw him.’

‘So, what happens now?’

Helga sighs. ‘He’s going back to Australia as soon as he’s able. He told me to call him.’

‘And you’re going to, right?’