Everything looks different today – no dazzling sea or brilliant skies – but the coast road retains its magic and Cara exclaims at this different aspect of the view across Start Bay.

‘So are you any nearer to making a decision?’ he asks her when they’re seated with their coffee in the conservatory of the Venus Café. He’s decided that it might be best not to mention anything she disclosed yesterday unless she does, but simply to go on as usual.

She shakes her head. ‘I simply can’t put my mind to it. Fliss and Hal have been kind enough to offer me sanctuary at The Keep when Judith and Max throw me out.’

‘Why wait to be thrown out?’ he asks. ‘Why not just bite the bullet and go? After all, Salcombe isn’t far away. You must believe Fliss and Hal when they say they’d love to have you. It’s the way The Keep has always been, full of friends and relations, and I think they find it too quiet, especially now that Lizzie’s gone.’

He doesn’t add that he’ll be going soon, too, but she nods as if she’s understood what he’s saying.

‘Maybe you’re right,’ she says. ‘Maybe I just need some extra little push.’

Sam is silent. He’s received a text from Amy this morning.

Breaking news. Max told Dad that Judith wants them to move to Oxford to be near family. She wants Cara to buy the house! It’s a pity you can’t warn her but better not say anything!

‘I shan’t stay with them much longer anyway,’ Cara is saying. ‘It puts too much strain on them. It’s just making the final cut, isn’t it? You sort of want the decision to be taken for you.’

‘No,’ he says at once. ‘It’s much better to jump than be pushed. What you do is, you walk in and say, “Hi, I’m back but only just to pack my things. It’s been great and we’ll be seeing each other, but it’s time to move on.” And then you do it.’

She’s staring at him in admiration. ‘Are you always so confident?’ she asks.

‘I haven’t been just lately,’ he answers honestly. ‘But I’m working on it.’

Cara looks out at the beach and the placid sea. As he watches her she straightens her shoulders, lifts her chin a fraction, as if she’s coming to a decision.

‘Go for it,’ he says quietly.

She looks at him. ‘D’you know, I think I might do just that,’ she answers.

She looks anxious, as if she is marshalling her resources, and suddenly he needs to reach out to her, to show her that he sympathizes with all that she has suffered rather than to behave as if the revelations yesterday hadn’t happened.