In the car park they encourage the dogs into their cars, then they smile at each other and Cosmo climbs into the driver’s seat and switches on the engine. He checks to see if Cara is ready to leave but she’s still standing with the door open so he reverses and drives away. He waves as he goes, heaving a sigh of relief, and wondering why he feels unnerved. His earlier sense of exultation has been quenched and he is determined to regain it. As soon as he gets home he’ll text Amy: make a plan.

After he’s gone, Cara sits for a moment, gazing over the steering wheel, wondering about Cosmo. It’s clear that he’s in the grip of some great emotion. The landscape might be spectacular, his enthusiasm for photography might be exciting, but that doesn’t quite explain the sheer joy that sparkles in his eyes and lights up his face.

So what does it matter if he’s in lust with Amy – why should she feel anxious? And why does she feel the stirrings of her own past, the remembrance of that same look on Joe’s face when he drove her from Fiumicino Airport to his flat in the city? Her hands tighten a little on the steering wheel. She recognizes the expression now. It’s the expression of a man in the grip of a strong visceral emotion who believes that he is getting away with it; that he can have it both ways. Cosmo was uncomfortable when she mentioned London. He didn’t want to talk about his quick dash away. She could tell by his body language that he was concealing something. But why? It’s no business of hers so why should he be wary?

Cara sits back, putting on her seat belt, starting the engine. She’s seen Cosmo with Amy and she can tell by the way that Amy looks at him that she’s falling in love, but Cara knows it’s crazy to make this connection with her and Joe.

That was then and this is now, she tells herself. But the memories begin to crowd in and with them comes the old familiar panic churning her gut.

Quickly she starts the engine, drives out into the lane. She won’t think about it – she must keep it sealed away – but she longs for Philip: for his presence standing between her and the darkness. From nowhere comes the memory of him holding her calmly as she sobbed, her head buried in his chest. He wasn’t surprised to see her: Max had phoned him to say she would be in Rome. She clung to this man she’d known all her life, Max’s closest friend, knowing he would help her.