‘You deal with this. It’s the ambulance service.’

With that he turned and ran into the water, shouting at Wendy to wait for him. Fortunately he’d kept himself in shape, and years of wild-water swimming with his mum were about to pay off. He dived into the water, wishing he’d taken time to kick his shoes off as he powered his way to the rowing boat.

Reaching the edge of the boat, he hauled himself in and took the oars from Wendy, pulling harder and faster than he’d ever done in his life. He had no idea how long Steph had been in the water. It might already be too late.

Memories of Elizabeth flooded back to him, images of her lifeless body in the hospital, tubes down her throat, wires attached to monitors. The beep-beep of the heart monitor and the sound of the ventilator wheezing. All the machinery which had kept Elizabeth alive but had not been able to save her.

Please, God, no. Not again. He wasn’t a man of faith, but if there was ever a time to convert, then it was now. If there was ever a time to believe in some force, some being, some entity that was able to perform miracles and was able to offer some ray of hope, then it was now.

‘Faster! Faster!’ urged Wendy, who was kneeling at the front of the boat. ‘We’re nearly there. Steph! Stephanie!’ The desperation and anguish in her voice wrenched at every fibre in Harry’s body. Despite what Steph had thought about her mum, she was wrong. This woman loved her daughter. There was no doubt about that. Whatever had gone on before was irrelevant, as in this moment all Wendy cared about was Steph.

From the depths of his reserves, Harry found a renewed burst of energy as he powered the rowing boat towards Steph. He guided it alongside her and, as Wendy leaned over to grab her daughter, Harry helped lift Steph up onto the side of the boat.

He could see Wendy’s police training taking over and she began to perform CPR on Steph’s lifeless body. He needed to get them all back to the shore. He knew his efforts were best used in rowing them back, but the wind had picked up and the current across the water was strong. He hoisted himself back into the boat and immediately took up the oars.

His arms and legs burned, his back was on fire, but he pushed through the pain, as his sole focus was getting Steph to shore. He watched as Wendy continued to pump at her daughter’s chest and then duck down to give her mouth-to-mouth. Again, he found himself offering up a prayer of mercy, that Steph be spared the same fate as Elizabeth.