‘Hey, hey, I’m sorry,’ he said quickly. ‘I didn’t mean to offend you. I just have to be careful, that’s all.’

An uneasy silence stretched between them. Harry picked up the fleece and offered it to her.

‘Thank you,’ she said, wrapping it around herself once again. ‘I didn’t mean to jump down your throat then, but I was genuinely just asking. It certainly wasn’t to sell a story.’

‘Sorry, I take back what I said,’ replied Harry. ‘It gets me like that sometimes. I overreact.’

‘I’m surprised you came back here at all, then,’ she said.

This time he could tell there was no malice in her voice. ‘Me too,’ he admitted ruefully. ‘But I didn’t have a lot of choice.’

‘I suppose you can’t wait to get back to France.’

‘Actually, I might be here a bit longer than I planned,’ he found himself saying. Shit. There he was again, close to telling her things he shouldn’t really be telling a journalist, but her concern sounded genuine.

‘I expect your mum likes you being here,’ she said.

His stomach clenched again. Steph, of course, had no idea about his mother’s health and how it was the only thing that would be keeping him here. He forced himself to answer and push the cancer from his mind. ‘Yeah, she likes me being here, but I guess it’s a mum thing.’

‘Your brothers must like it too.’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. You’ll have to ask them that. Anyway, about this walk tomorrow – what time are you heading off?’

‘Early. Straight after breakfast.’

‘OK. I’ll meet you at the gate at the back of the pool house at ten.’ He was encouraged by her smile.

‘It’s a date,’ she said.

The sound of someone calling his name made Harry turn towards the restaurant area. It was the head of Housekeeping, Heidi. ‘I’m sorry to bother you, Harry,’ she said, glancing at Steph. Her voice sounded urgent.

‘It’s OK. What’s wrong?’ He saw Heidi throw another look at Steph.

‘I’ll leave you to it,’ said Steph. ‘I need an early night anyway. It was nice talking to you. See you in the morning.’ She slipped the fleece from her shoulders and folded it over the wall.

‘Yeah, sure,’ replied Harry. He watched her go and acknowledged the slight disappointment he felt that he wouldn’t be seeing her any more that evening. Then, remembering Heidi was still standing there, he focused his attention back on the head of Housekeeping.

‘There’s been a problem in the laundry room,’ said Heidi.

‘What sort of problem?’ Harry wished she would get to the point. He looked beyond her at the disappearing figure of Steph.

‘Two members of staff, Antonio and Jerome – they’ve had a bit of a bust-up and Jerome has walked out. We’re going to be short staffed tomorrow.’