‘I had my phone, ready to call someone if it went wrong.’ Hannah waggled her mobile.

‘Who are you?’ The older woman had a handsome face, her features sharp, her eyes piercing. She sounded half accusatory, half curious.

‘This is Hannah,’ Daniel said smoothly. ‘She and Noah are the eco-consultants who’ve been working at the hotel.’

‘Noah and Hannah,’ Reenie repeated, holding out her hand to each of them in turn. Her grip was strong, bony and, unsurprisingly, cold. ‘I would suggest you’re a bad influence on Charlie and Daniel, but I’m inclined to think it’s the other way around.’

‘Help me pack up the cakes,’ Charlie said quickly. ‘If everyone’s going to be up at the hotel for a while, then these won’t go to waste.’

‘Are you going to infiltrate my hotel with your baking?’ Daniel raised an eyebrow at her.

‘Of course,’ Charlie said. ‘Did you expect anything else?’

Hannah helped Charlie box the cakes and pastries, aware of Noah standing close to the stairs, wiping his glasses with the edge of his jumper. When the last lid was secured, she walked up to him.

‘Are you OK? It looked horrible out there.’

‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘Better now it’s over, but it wasn’t too bad.’ Hannah glanced out of the open doorway as a particularly large wave hit the rocks and Reenie’s house disappeared from view. She turned back to him. ‘OK,’ he conceded, ‘it was fucking scary. But we had to get Reenie, and we did. We got her, so …’ His breath came out in a long exhale, and it blew out Hannah’s last bit of resolve.

She put her arms around him, her hands pressed to his shoulder blades, his soaked coat against her cheek. After a second he hugged her back, bringing them closer, and her relief faded as desire took over, as she felt the solid shape of him, his strong limbs, the muscles she had seen in the pool. She breathed steadily and closed her eyes. He was safe: that was all that mattered.

‘Come on you two,’ Reenie said, ‘he’s not just come back from Dunkirk. We’ve got to go out in the storm again, so wait until we reach Crystal Waters before you hug it out.’

Hannah let go and stepped away from Noah, her cheeks flaming, and Daniel rolled his eyes and gave her a conciliatory smile. It seemed nobody was spared Reenie’s sharp tongue.

Despite Noah’s comfortable Land Rover taking them back up the hill, it was a bedraggled party of five people and one dog that arrived at Crystal Waters that afternoon. Hannah had had limited time outside herself, but she still felt as if she’d been on an emotional journey, and had to stop herself hugging the Christmas tree, she was so relieved to see it.

‘Golly,’ Chloe said. ‘Are you all OK?’

‘Nothing a hot bath won’t fix,’ Charlie said brightly. ‘Where shall I put these?’

‘We’ll take them to the kitchen.’ Daniel turned to the receptionist. ‘Chloe, will you book Reenie into one of the suites, please?’