‘All good, I hope.’

‘Of course. I understand it was thanks to you he received medical aid so quickly. Not to mention, the hit from the boom would have been a lot worse if you hadn’t pulled him down.’

‘Not quite fast enough, though,’ Mats said ruefully, looking back at the boss again. ‘How are you now, honestly? I didn’t think you’d be up and about so quickly.’

‘I’m fine, really.’

Mats looked sceptical. ‘Yeah? You took a proper wallop there.’

‘Just some headaches. They’ll pass. I’ve been well looked after.’ He draped an arm over Hanna’s shoulder, as if to prove she was his Florence Nightingale. Bell looked away. Was she going to get any credit at all – she had clipped him back to safety again, protected his head from further blows, held him all the way back – or had he erased her completely from his version of events?

She realized that Hanna hadn’t greeted her. And that in fact, although friendly to Mats, she was seemingly unable to even meet her eyes? She must have realized that she had fallen asleep in the bed, that Bell would have seen her there.

‘Uh, Hanna, about that –’ She pulled a face, hoping she could pull off the lie. ‘Listen, I’m really sorry about this morning. I was going to text you. I’m afraid I slept right through the alarm for the five o’clock check.’

She felt Emil’s stare spring on her like a cat as she watched Hanna’s expression change, relief suffusing her like a spring bloom. ‘You did?’

She shrugged, not sure why she was rushing to save her boss’s blushes. ‘Yes, I’m so sorry. I mean, clearly everything’s worked out well, but still, I feel terrible about it.’

‘No, no, not at all,’ Hanna said quickly, glancing at Emil with a secret look. ‘It’s fine. He’s fine. Aren’t you?’

Emil nodded, his eyes meeting hers finally and scorching her. He was looking smarter than at any other point since she’d met him, a pale-blue Oxford shirt making the most of his eyes, white chino shorts with Tods, shoes with actual backs. He looked a step closer already to the man in the wedding photo. The Hanna Effect. He was getting what he wanted – his old life back. First his son, now his wife.

‘Bell,’ Linus said excitedly, interrupting now that the first round of pleasantries was over. ‘You should have been there today. We went skateboarding down the halls and had a picnic at the hidden beach!’

‘Oh!’ she nodded, trying to see only one of him and trying not to look as drunk as she actually was, hanging off a handsome sailor in just her bikini at ten o’clock at night. ‘I wish I’d been there.’

‘Where did you go? You were already gone when I woke up.’

Her smile set in place. ‘I came here.’

‘What? All day?’

‘Yep.’ She nodded. ‘All day.’ Drinking from that bar . . .

‘Well, it’s good to see you letting your hair down, Bell,’ Hanna said, smiling warmly, relaxed now that her indiscretion had gone unseen, generous now that it was Bell – and not her – who was wrecked. ‘It looks like you’ve had a great day.’