Harriet flicked the end of her scarf back over her shoulder. Thea tugged at her bobble hat and nudged the hem of her jeans over her old trainers, feeling dowdy in comparison, a bedraggled stray next to a sleek house cat.

‘Is it just me?’

‘Oh … yes. You’re the last, you see. We had to wait for the weather to clear to make the crossing again for you. Not that I’ll overwhelm you with introductions tonight. Plenty of time for that.’

Thea felt she should fill the pause.

‘What did you do before—?’

But Harriet interrupted her, standing on tiptoe to wave.

‘Boat’s here!’

Thea gingerly stepped on, steadied by the skipper, trying to avoid the slippery bits while Harriet strode through as if she was on a New York catwalk and immediately joined the skipper at the front, which was sectioned off by glass; whether this was to intentionally discourage any more questions, Thea couldn’t be sure.

She kept her eyes on the mainland receding behind her. The queasiness settled as sour bile in her throat. She watched as the coastline became a blocky shape, and then finally impressionist splodges of muted colour. Thea was leaving behind all of that; instead she was out here, in the grey waves, free, released from job, routine, her whole life, such as it was.

‘You okay, Thea?’ Harriet called back towards her.

‘Fine!’

‘Because if you’re seasick—’

‘No! I’m fine!’

She was fine, even though she’d never learned to swim, had never even put her head under the water in the bath and the boat rocked around alarmingly like a fairground ride – except those rides went through safety checks, didn’t they? The sea didn’t.

Not for the first time, she cursed her mother for spending hours and hours trying to save the oceans but no time at all teaching her own daughter how to swim.

What had Harriet said? Think of it like a luxury hotel stay.

Okay, so this was a luxury hotel stay. She could go for bracing coastal walks along the clifftops, read books by an open fire, meet new people … meet some new people … okay only a few new people. She wasn’t great at people. A holiday.

As a lab rat.

‘Look!’ Harriet pointed ahead of them.

Out of the gloom rose sheer cliff walls, black and slick, the waves whirling and churning against them. Dragons. The cliffs looked as if they should have dragons perched on top of them, waiting for one to shrug its wings open and send a scorching arc of fire across the rocks. As the boat got closer, these cliffs blocked out the sky and the world turned to shadow.

Suddenly Thea felt very small.

Chapter 8

‘Good morning, Thea Mackenzie.’

Thea stuck her head out from under the duvet and rubbed her eyes, looking for whoever had just come in. ‘Huh? Good morn—’

‘Your schedule for today is being displayed.’