‘That wasn’t what I was asking!’ Lexi’s teeth were chattering. ‘He was really worried about you. You should have seen the look on his face when he had to decide whether to hang onto me or you. He never took his eyes off you. If you’d been swept into the water he’d have been in there after you. What’s going on?’

This was the perfect time to say something.

Jenna licked her lips. ‘Do you like Ryan, sweetheart?’

‘Oh, yes. And I like Evanna and the kids, and Fraser. Loads of people, actually. I never thought this place would be so cool.’ Lexi clung tighter. ‘I’ve got used to it here, Mum. I like Glenmore. And do you know the best thing?’

Ryan, Jenna thought. He was the best thing. ‘Tell me the best thing for you.’

‘The fact that it’s just the two of us. I love that.’

Just the two of us.

Jenna swallowed down the words she’d been about to speak.

How could she say them now?

Lexi buried her face in Jenna’s shoulder. ‘Dad was awful to you. I see that now. He didn’t even tell you stuff face to face. He just let you find out.’

‘I expect he did what he thought was best.’ Burying her own needs, Jenna watched as the sea level rose. ‘Don’t think about it now.’ They needed to climb higher, she thought numbly, glancing upwards with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Now that the immediate crisis was over, the impossibility of it overwhelmed her.

‘I want to talk about it, Mum!’ Lexi seemed to have forgotten her surroundings. ‘You’re always protecting me, but I want the truth.’

Shivering, wet, chilled to the bone, Jenna tried to stop her teeth from chattering as she searched for the right thing to say. ‘Dad—He—Actually, Lex, I don’t know what happened with your dad. The truth is that sometimes the people we love disappoint us. But I’m not going to do that. I will always be here for you. Always. You’ll have a home with me always.’ She smoothed the girl’s soaking hair. ‘Even when you’re off at university, or travelling the world, you’ll still have a home with me.’

If they survived.

If they didn’t both drown in this isolated, godforsaken gash in the cliff face.