‘I think you should go,’ Tim said. ‘Unless you want to try and grab me. I guarantee you won’t do nearly as well against someone the same size as you – well, bigger.’

Mr Morrell just backed away. She could see that he still wanted to talk, but not with Tim here. Jasmine knew he was considering his chances of winning a fight but then he clearly thought better of it and broke into a run back across the bridge and up the path that led to the houses at the top of the cliff. He lived in one of them – Jasmine knew because during one of their chats he’d told her his bedroom overlooked the sea. At the time she thought it was a strange thing to tell her, but now she knew he had the wrong idea about them it made sense. There was a restraining order in place and he couldn’t be within a hundred metres of Jasmine. As she thought about the look on his face she wondered if the restraining order made a difference at all; would he violate it again or had Tim scared him off for good?

She stared with bated breath across the bridge until she was sure Mr Morrell was gone. Then Jasmine rushed forwards and clutched Tim. He put his arms around her to comfort her.

‘Oh my God, thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t turned up.’

‘Who was that?’ he asked, letting go of her. She stepped back and suddenly felt very awkward about the fact that she just had her arms wrapped around his waist.

‘It’s a long story. He’s no one, really. He’s harmless.’

‘You seem scared of him,’ Tim said softly, as though he were trying to coax information from her, or maybe she just wanted to tell him.

‘My parents didn’t tell you the story? They told everyone else.’

‘They haven’t told me anything.’

‘He was a teacher at my school. He lost his job because of some stuff he did.’

Tim shifted his gaze to the path. ‘What’s up there?’

‘Houses. He lives in one of them. I think so, anyway.’

‘What do you mean by “stuff”?’

‘It was nothing, he just got confused about me and then kissed me. He didn’t know there was a camera in the library and when the school found out he got into loads of trouble and lost his job,’ Jasmine blurted out, unsure why she sounded apologetic.

‘Did you kiss him back?’

‘What? No.’

‘Is that all he did?’