The twins nodded their heads underwater, in unison, as she walked them slowly along the edge of the curved beach, holding a hand in each of hers, the water clear and cool. She stretched her neck as she walked, feeling the sun beat on her shoulders, and knew she ought to reapply some sunscreen. The weather had settled again after the storm at the end of last week, clear skies stretching tightly overhead. She checked her skin for signs of burning. Her tan was growing deep, and caramel highlights streaked the wispy front sections of her hair so that her eyes looked especially fiery and bright in the mirror.

The sound of a boat made her glance up and she saw Max coming round the headland with Hanna beside him, in the twin stroke; she had been stranded at Emil’s when Bell had left in Nymphea and not returned.

The girls heard the engine too underwater and lifted their heads quizzically, forcing Bell to grab them around the waists as they kicked about excitedly, almost sinking themselves.

‘Mamma!’ Tilde yelled, the mouthpiece still in her mouth so that her voice trumpeted. ‘We’re snorkelleers!’

Bell smiled at her description as Hanna just waved, unable to either hear or understand their garbled shouts. Max let the boat glide in to the shore, nudging the sand just enough for her to jump out onto the sand, before he circled back to the buoy where he would tether up and swim back in himself.

‘Mamma! Mamma!’

Bell waded back to the beach, a twin on each hip, putting the girls down when it was shallow enough for them to stand again. They ran ahead comically through the water, arms lifted to their heads and hair tangled in their mask straps, running into their mother’s arms as though she had been gone three months and not just for the weekend.

A lot could happen in that time, though. So much had. Families could be unpicked in mere moments. Had theirs? She watched as Hanna grabbed her daughters to her, the doting mother. The unfaithful wife.

‘My babies!’ she was laughing, holding them close to her, eyes closed in bliss as she sank down in the sand with them, not caring that her shorts were getting wet.

‘Hanna, I’m really sorry, I totally forgot about the boat,’ Bell said as she approached. ‘I should have brought it over for you. I could easily have kayaked back here.’

‘No,’ Hanna said quickly. ‘It’s perfectly fine. It was no problem for Max to collect me.’

Bell caught something in her voice – an obligingness that seemed almost too ready, an eagerness to please. Appease.

‘And how’s Emil?’ she asked dutifully, refusing to let her voice or face betray how even just his name made her feel. Max had backed off as soon as she had mentioned quitting: she would look after the girls for the rest of the summer, and then they would be back in the city. Normal life would resume, Emil would be forgotten.