‘There are no words.’ Rosa looks out at the loch. ‘I remember the first time Eleanor met the McClusky boys. She was so excited to have some kids to play with. To think Mairi and I used to watch them all play together as children.’ She smiles to herself, tears filling her eyes. ‘We even joked they might one day marry, Eleanor and Dylan … or his brother, Cole.’ Her expression changes, her eyes darkening. ‘Cole visited me not long after his brother died, confessed it all.’

‘Confessed? Amber asks, confused.

Rosa looks back at Amber. ‘Eleanor found proof we owned the land the McCluskys’ lodge stood on. She confronted them the day she died. Cole told me she was so scared by his mother’s reaction, she ran away across the loch. That’s when she fell through the ice.’ She puts her hand to her mouth, shaking her head. ‘Cole was there, right there at the banks of the loch. And he did nothing.’

Amber’s mouth drops open. ‘He didn’t help her?’

Rosa shakes her head, tears now falling down her cheeks as she relives what happened. ‘He told me he wanted to teach my daughter a lesson. He insisted he was planning to help her.’ Her voice breaks. ‘But he left it too late.’

Amber leans forward, clasping the woman’s hand. ‘Did you go to the police?’

Rosa wipes her tears away. ‘Of course not. That family had been through enough.’

Amber leans back against the sofa, suddenly exhausted.

‘I’m sorry,’ Rosa says. ‘It’s been a long time since I’ve talked about it.’

‘Please, don’t apologise. It must bring back memories, seeing Lumin?’ Rosa nods. ‘You mentioned you’ve lost track of Lumin’s mother. Is it the same with the rest of the family?’ Amber asks her.

‘I believe Cole is living in London now, new wife, new job in the city. Heather works in Paris as some avant garde film-maker. Glenn is now writing adult books. Alison runs workshops for divorced women. I hear all this from Oscar when I see him down the pub.’

Amber thinks of the old man they’d seen sitting in the pub. Of course, she hadn’t clicked before. ‘I think we saw him earlier.’

Rosa sighs sadly. ‘Drinking himself to death, just like my husband did.’

‘I’m so sorry to hear that.’

‘The grief was too much. I found my husband, there by the lake,’ Rosa says, eyes glancing over to the side of the lake. There’s a beautiful wooden carving of a girl staked into the ground there. ‘Dylan made that for us after Eleanor died. We threw it in the attic. But after my husband died, I dug it out, a memorial to them all.’ Rosa smiles as she glances at Amber’s mug. ‘You’ve barely touched your hot chocolate.’