‘Sorry,’ says Cosmo, hurrying to catch up, putting his phone back in his pocket and regretting that he hasn’t brought his camera.

As they pass the boatyard Cosmo clips Reggie’s lead to his collar and they walk on together, turning into Island Street. Cosmo is fascinated by the old boatyards and sail lofts, the smell of salt and varnish and tar, and the unusual shops and cafés. Most of the summer visitors have vanished away but there are still people around, enjoying the sunshine, eating pasties on the waterfront, idling in Fore Street.

It’s early for lunch and Cosmo decides to have a double espresso in the Coffee Shop in Fore Street. The tables outside are occupied but there’s room inside so he settles Reggie and goes to the counter to order his drink. The staff are friendly, seeming to recognize him, and an elderly man smiles and pauses on his way out to make a fuss of Reggie, so that Cosmo feels as if he is already becoming a local.

As he sits down, Cosmo reflects on this atmosphere of friendliness, the way strangers smile and say ‘Good morning’, or comment on the weather. He is not used to eye contact and brief exchanges, and he likes this easy-going cheerfulness. The words ‘Dolce far Niente’ chalked up on a board above his head make him smile, too. ‘The sweetness of doing nothing’ suits the mood perfectly. He gazes out through the open doorway, at the sunny street and the people moving in and out of his line of vision, and wonders whether Becks would like it here. She would be restless until she had an itinerary: her phone showing her places to go, things to see, galleries to visit. Not for Becks the sweetness of doing nothing.

The sunshine is suddenly blocked as a figure comes in, just a silhouette at first against the brightness outside and then clearer as the girl comes right into the café. Her long dark curly hair is caught up in a series of clips and she is wearing white dungarees splashed with paint. Someone behind the counter calls a greeting to her and she smiles back, glancing around her and briefly catching Cosmo’s gaze. Cosmo bends to stroke Reggie, not wanting to look as if he is staring. His espresso arrives, there is a little flurry of new arrivals, and the girl leaves with her takeaway coffee. Feeling irrationally disappointed, Cosmo sips his own coffee, ruffles Reggie’s ears and settles back to enjoy the moment.

From the next table Cara watches him. The little thump of shock she experienced when she first saw him come in has made her heart beat fast. How strange that this thin, elegant, young stranger should bring Giovanni so forcibly to her mind after nearly forty years. He has Joe’s dark, Italian colouring, that oddly familiar energy; his grace of movement, and the wide mouth ready to smile.