‘Hi,’ said Kate. ‘I’m Kate and this is Becky.’

‘Very nice to meet you both,’ said Audrey. She looked up as two other people approached their table. ‘Here they are! The terrible twosome.’ She waved a hand at a late middle-aged couple in shorts, T-shirts, hats and sunglasses. ‘Steve and Debbie, this is Kate and Becky. On holiday.’ She turned to Kate. ‘When did you arrive, love?’

‘Today.’

‘We come every year, don’t we, Debs?’ said Audrey as Debbie heaved her enormous stuffed-full beach bag onto a chair at the next table, before plonking herself down beside it. ‘That’s right. Well, last couple of years anyhow.’

Steve squeezed Audrey’s fleshy shoulder before joining his wife. ‘Always try and leave you behind on the motorway, never quite manage it,’ he joked.

‘Is it your first time?’ asked Debbie, as she lifted her bleached-blonde hair off the back of her neck and flapped it to let in some air.

‘Yes,’ said Kate.

‘It’s all right, actually. Better than some. You gotta keep an eye on the pool. Gets a bit manky sometimes. Have to say, you never got that at our hotel in Marbella.’

Audrey groaned. ‘Oh, don’t bring that up again, Debs, you’ll only get him started.’ She looked at her husband and, sure enough, Phil was disgruntled.

‘I told you we should’ve gone back to Spain.’

‘Phil, you know we can only afford it every other year,’ said Audrey.

‘Yeah, but next year we won’t be able to afford it because the bloody euro will be in and the thieving bastards will all be racking up their prices.’

Kate glanced anxiously at Becky, but she seemed oblivious, tucking into her cheese sandwich that had just arrived. Audrey flicked a hand on Phil’s arm. ‘Oi, watch your language. There’s kiddies about.’ She turned to Kate. ‘Sorry about him.’

Kate smiled politely, realizing that, once again, she seemed to be mixing with people two or three times her age, and she wistfully wondered if other twenty-one-year-olds came to campsites like this, almost immediately knowing the answer. She suddenly had a slump of energy, felt old before her time.

Audrey glanced about. ‘Are your mum and dad here?’

Becky, thinking she was the one being addressed, looked puzzledly at Kate, as if to check, then said, pointing: ‘Mummy’s there. And I don’t have a daddy.’

Silence reigned. Audrey’s eyes widened, then her features settled into barely concealed disapproval. ‘Oh, right,’ she said, and Kate saw Debbie was pretending not to look but was staring at her through her dark glasses. Audrey, too, was peering at her again, trying to do some maths.

‘I had Becky when I was fifteen,’ said Kate defiantly, partly to shock them further, partly because being constantly stuck with the wrong generation made her want to scream.

Phil stopped eating, but didn’t look up. A moment passed then his jaw began moving again.

Becky looked at the plates of food that had been brought out to Steve and Debbie and their mountains of chips. ‘Mummy, can I have some chips, please?’