I was acutely aware that I was soaked in sweat and red-faced from the heat.

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘You’re here. How did you get back?’

They were the first words I’d spoken to him since our confrontation at the gorge yesterday afternoon. It seemed like an age ago.

Sean shrugged.

‘We walked back from the village.’

I shook my head.

‘I just ran that way. Didn’t see you.’

‘There’s a little path up the hill, a short cut. Quite steep, though.’

‘I tried calling your mobile.’

‘Left it here. Sorry.’

‘You were gone a long time.’

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder in direction of the village.

‘There was a street market and Jen wanted to have a look. They had some lovely arts-and-crafty stuff.’

‘I ran through the square. There was no market.’

He wouldn’t meet my eye, using the excuse of unloading the shopping to keep his back to me.

‘It was on the far side of the church, by the recreation ground.’

Rowan had mentioned something about a market when we first arrived. I couldn’t remember for sure what day it was held, but I didn’t think it was today.

‘And they were doing little samples of the local wine,’ Sean said, ‘so we had to give them a try.’

I opened a paper bag of pastries, the smell of freshly baked croissants filling my nose. It should have made me hungry, but my appetite had almost completely disappeared these last few days.

‘I’ll heat some croissants up for the kids. Do you want one?’

‘In a bit. Just going to grab a quick shower.’

‘Oh.’

A shower, I thought. To wash her smell off him.

‘Didn’t have one earlier in case I woke you up,’ he said. ‘Absolutely scorching out there already, though.’

Daniel wandered into the kitchen and looked me up and down.

‘Did you find any proper milk, Mummy?’

Chapter 38

38

Izzy

Izzy followed the sound of the grand piano, the notes swelling and sweeping in perfect rhythm through the villa’s ground floor and out onto the balcony. The music rose and fell, heavy with emotion, a flawless rendition of a complicated sonata. She climbed the staircase up from the pool, crossed the balcony into the lounge, and perched on the arm of a sofa to watch Lucy as she played.