‘No,’ she cries. ‘No … no … no …’

She smacks his cheek. ‘Jamie. Jamie! Wake up.’

He slips again under the surface of the water. She can’t hold him.

She can’t save him.

She’s panicking now, furiously kicking, trying to keep him afloat.

She hears the sound of a boat and she’s blinded as a light shines directly at her face. Then she hears Claire shouting.

‘Maddy! Maddy! She’s over there.’

The engine of the boat cuts out and then she hears the voices of the two lifeguards. They both lean over the side of the large inflatable boat and Jamie is being wrenched from her grasp. They haul him up and over the large orange side. She grabs on to the rope, choking on the water as the waves splash her. Then she feels strong arms grab her too and, in a second, she’s slithering into the bottom of the lifeboat beside Jamie.

‘You got him,’ Claire says, crouching down next to him. ‘You got him.’

‘Jamie,’ Maddy croaks, seeing her boy lifeless and still next to her.

‘Move aside,’ the lifeguard demands, and Claire pulls Maddy into her embrace as she wails in despair.

47

Facing Facts

Helga sleeps fitfully, but she’s woken by a banging on the door. For a moment, she doesn’t know where she is and then she remembers that she’s home and stares at the ceiling, trying to make sense of the last few days. She gets up, surprised to find that she isn’t dizzy. She doesn’t hold on to the bannister in the same way either as she goes downstairs.

It’s only now that she realises how much she’s been compensating for her undiagnosed heart condition – deliberately not admitting that there’d been a problem to herself. Or anyone else. Mette had given her a right dressing-down on the phone about how scared Helga had made her. In a rare show of emotion, she’d started crying.

‘I was so scared,’ she’d said in a small voice that had made Helga think of her as a child and how she used to have night terrors. ‘You’re all I’ve got.’

Helga knows this isn’t true. She’s got her good-for-nothing father, but Helga used the opportunity to say something to Mette that she hasn’t had the courage to before.

‘I don’t want to be all you’ve got,’ she’d told her niece. ‘You must find someone of your own. You must stop being scared of love.’

‘I’m not,’ Mette had said tearfully. ‘I just haven’t had time.’

‘Then make time. For me. Promise me.’

And Mette had promised that she’d make more of an effort.

Helga can’t imagine she’ll have a problem finding someone with her intelligence, her looks and money being the icing on the cake. Mette’s promised Helga she’ll keep her posted on her forays into dating, although Helga can’t bear the thought of those terrible dating apps and her being exposed to all sorts of crazy people. She’s told Mette to do something out of the ordinary, something she loves. Because that way, she’ll meet the right person and, for once in her life, Mette has taken her advice and booked a walking holiday.