As Matthew drew near to Beth, even from here Esther could feel the intensity of their gaze upon each other. She saw Beth reach out with fingers that shook towards the two men. But to whom she was reaching in that tentative, thankful gesture, no one could have said, for her gaze never left Matthew’s face. When he gently gave over her husband into her arms, and watched as she took the man’s full weight upon herself, it was Matthew’s face Beth reached up and touched. Matthew grasped her hand and held it to his cheek for a timeless moment before the crowd surged forward to help, and they were forced to draw apart.

‘Here, lass, let us help ya.’

‘Is he alive?’

‘Matthew – you’re a hero. Ya mun be exhausted ya’sen, lad.’

‘Here, drink this, Matthew, ’tis rum. ’Twill warm ya.’

‘The doctor, get the doctor for Robert Eland.’

Unobserved, Esther slipped away from the back of the crowd, the dark beach enfolding her as she hurried away to collect her child from Ma Harris’s and be home before Matthew.

She would never, she vowed, tell him that she had even been on the beach. She could never tell him what she had seen pass between Beth and him that night.

For a while Matthew basked in the glory of being a hero. The local paper recounted the courageous rescue and stated quite categorically that Matthew Hilton, and the rest of the lifeboat crew, had saved Robert Eland’s life. It was Matthew, the paper reported, who had plunged into the icy waters and battled his way through mountainous seas to Robert Eland’s little boat when they found it drifting helplessly towards a sandbank. Robert Eland, weak with exhaustion and only semi-conscious, could not rouse himself to climb into the lifeboat as it had come alongside in such treacherous, swelling seas. Had it not been for the bravery of Matthew Hilton, the small fishing boat would have been grounded on the sandbank and probably would have capsized, plunging the fisherman to his death. The journalist who wrote the report was unstinting in his praise, though of course he knew nothing of the strange connection between the two men which, had he but known, made the gallant rescue even more praiseworthy.

From that night, Matthew was welcomed back into the lifeboat as a permanent member of the crew. He was fiercely proud of the place he had earned in the lifeboat and even though there was still guarded wariness between Robert Eland and Matthew, whenever there was a shout the two men seemed able to leave their differences ashore. Esther found this difficult to understand and yet she could not help but feel a grudging admiration for men who could hate each other and yet still work as a team to help someone else in distress.