“I speak Kazakh,” said Alicia.

“Course you do. Only if I ask you to, you won’t, because every word of the Kazakh tongue contains at least one syllable that’s a swear word in English.” The kettle whistled impatiently. Finn filled the mugs. “There you go.”

Alicia took a chocolate HobNob from the Winston Churchill tin (another wonderful thing about these two… all their biscuits were nice) and dunked it in her tea. If anyone had asked her to explain the pleasure in sitting in silence with two people, decades older than her and whose surnames she didn’t even know, she would have been unable to begin. But Ava and Finn never asked her to explain.

Clutching boiling mugs of tea, they sat on the veranda and stared out at the ocean.

“Right,” said Finn. “I’m off to get a new gas bottle. If the Foreign Legion come looking for me, don’t tell them anything.”

“It’s my turn to go,” said Ava.

“Too late, I’m gone.” Finn heaved the bottle over his shoulder. “Remember, you ain’t seen nothing and you don’t know nothing and there ain’t nobody called Finn round these parts. Got it?”

“It should be me,” said Ava.

“But then I’d be here when the Legion come calling.” Finn strode away.

Alicia watched Finn leave with a sense of loss. Finn was fun and silly – easy to listen to, easy to be around. But Ava was beautiful and compelling and intimidating, and she was living inside Alicia’s dream apparently without effort, whiling her days away watching the water and talking to her brother. Did she even like Ava? Or did she resent her for having the life she craved? Alicia wasn’t sure.

“What does he mean about the Foreign Legion?” Alicia asked, for something to say. Ava laughed.

“Okay, so there was this guy Finn knew once. Andy something. He worked for a circus for a while, and something offshore, and a bit of time as a mercenary – all sorts. Anyway, one time they were talking about travel, and Andy mentioned he hated travelling in Europe because he couldn’t use Charles de Gaulle airport. So we asked him why, and he said, ‘I joined the bloody Foreign Legion, didn’t I, and then I got pissed off with it and left again, and the buggers are still looking for me.’ Apparently they’re like the Mob, they absolutely never ever forget, and if he ever lands in French territory his passport will trigger an alarm somewhere and they’ll arrest him for desertion. Finn spent weeks trying to find out if he really had joined up and deserted, or if it was just a brilliant cover story for not liking France. So ever since, Finn’s been pretending he’s a Foreign Legion deserter, too. And whenever anything bad happens, he always says, ‘Never mind, we can always run away and join the Foreign Legion.’” She laughed at Alicia’s expression. “Well, it was funny at the time.” She put down her mug, and stretched. “Fancy a swim?”