‘I’d like that.’ Sam accepts a slice of lemon drizzle cake. He enjoys going out in Max’s Vivacity 24. ‘Are you a sailor, Cara?’

She considers the question. ‘Not so’s you’d notice,’ she answers at last. ‘I get muddled with sheets and jibs and all that “ready about” stuff. I like to be on the water but I’m not useful.’

‘You said it,’ agrees Max, ruefully.

‘I shall stay with Oscar,’ says Cara, patting the old dog’s head. ‘We’ll walk out to Snapes Point and wave as you sail past.’

Sam drinks his tea. He feels relaxed with these two people. There aren’t the usual questions about what he’s doing that he generally gets from older people. A text comes in for Max from Judith, and Sam remembers to ask after Freya.

‘Judith is rather worried about her,’ Max tells him. ‘It was quite a nasty break and the baby’s due in a couple of weeks. Paul’s on a lecture tour at Harvard. Judith’s wondering if she should stay on in Oxford, just in case.’

Just briefly, on Cara’s face, Sam notices an expression of hopefulness. It’s gone in a flash but he wonders how well these two women get along and he’s amused by the possibility that Cara finds Judith as tiresome as he does. He feels guilty about it but Judith is so managing, so controlling. Fleetingly Sam meets Cara’s gaze and he knows that she’s thinking exactly the same. He has to smother a smile but she sees it and her mouth twitches in sympathy. In the small silence that follows, Sam feels that some message has passed between them; something important, special. It’s as if he has unexpectedly found a friend and an ally.

‘Poor Judith,’ Cara says to Max. ‘Such a worry. It will be a great comfort for Freya to have her there.’

‘Mmm,’ says Max, non-committally, tapping out a reply.

As Sam finishes his cake, Oscar climbs down from the sofa and comes across to him. He licks Sam’s fingers, his tail wagging with pleasure. Sam pulls his ears gently.

‘You’re just after my cake,’ he tells Oscar. ‘You don’t fool me.’

Max and Cara laugh and the conversation turns to the dogs at The Keep. Sam tells them that Hal and Fliss are considering a rescue dog: a Labrador. Then Max suggests they all have supper at the pub and Sam agrees. He feels happier than he’s been for weeks.

CHAPTER FIVE

‘Seems we’ve got a settled spell of weather coming in,’ Jack says, switching off the local news and weather programme and getting to his feet. ‘Makes a nice change. Think I’ll go for a pint. Want to come?’

Amy looks up from her tablet. ‘I can’t, Dad. I’m going out with Cosmo this evening. I’m taking him over to Prawle, to the Pigs Nose.’