But the trouble was that Rob still hoped. That brief sense of her that he’d had in his dreams had been enough to open up a whole floodgate. He was desperate to go and see her, to clear the air between them once and for all. And he would if it wasn’t for this damn hospital bed.

The days went slowly for him. He was used to being out in the open, to having his muscles strengthened through work, his limbs warmed by the sun.

He was the kind of person who knew that they couldn’t be too far away from the sea either. It sustained him: its constant background lull had got into his blood, its moods inspiring his own. Stuck inside a place like this was torture, his mind going round and round like dogs at a racetrack. It was like his brain was a turntable stuck on one song, and that song was ‘Elle’ . . .

He worried that some essential part of him was being leeched away during this separation from the outdoors. He could almost feel his muscles melting away and his complexion fading. He was happy to be alive of course, and so lucky, as everyone kept telling him, but he didn’t want to get out of hospital and look like some sickly, weakened twin of his former self.

Taunting him too was the knowledge that work had begun on the hotel. It was the best news he’s had since he had been in hospital, that the family had got the loan. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t the one working on the renovations; what did matter is that they were happening at all. He just wished that he had heard it from Elle’s lips. It was her victory. Everyone had helped, but Elle was the one who had made it happen, with her drive and brilliance. He couldn’t help but think about her all the time in superlatives. If only she would come and see him and they could talk straight for once. He realised that since she got back to Mulberry Bay, they hadn’t had one conversation in which they’d both said what they really felt. He imagined it would have to be like a child’s game in which he would say something and then tell her, ‘now you go’, and back and forth like that until they had some understanding between them. Because there had been misunderstandings, he was sure of that.

Well, if Elle was going to play stubborn and keep away, Rob might just have to go to her.

Chapter 42

Still, as time went by, the hotel seemed to get worse, not better.

‘I suppose it’s always like this in the interim,’ Colin pointed out, doubtfully. ‘You always have to put up with a fair amount of discomfort when you renovate a place like this.’