When he entered, he wasn’t surprised to see her suitcase was open on the bed and she was folding her clothes into it.

‘Don’t try to stop me with some random Beatles quote,’ she said. ‘I’ve made up my mind. I’ve done nothing but mess things up since I got here.’

‘That’s not true. You’ve been a real comfort to your sister.’

‘A comfort! I’ve managed to sabotage the only two chances of saving the hotel. I’ve said awful things to Penny, and even more awful things to Rob. I might as well have come and set fire to the place for all the good I’ve done.’

Ned said nothing, just waited patiently. Sometimes Anna would get herself worked up like this and need to just talk herself out. He thought maybe this was what his eldest needed, too.

‘I just don’t understand it,’ she said. ‘I went and talked to those people in good faith based on what Rob had said about them wanting to help us. And every single one of them seemed to be offended by my very presence. What did I ever do to them? Yes, I moved away from town, but is that some kind of crime? Now I’m trying to do something useful for the place and they throw it back in my face.’

‘They don’t hate you, Elle. And they certainly don’t hold it against you that you left the Bay.’

‘You’re wrong, Dad,’ she said. ‘I know you and Penny like to think the best of everyone, but they just didn’t want to hear it. I tried to take up as little of their time as possible, and the proposal couldn’t have been clearer, but they didn’t want to hear a word.’

She continued to roll up socks and fold jeans and place them determinedly into her case. ‘I don’t see what else we could have offered them, really. It’s the best return we could give in the circumstances.’

‘I don’t know if it’s about “returns”,’ her father said quietly. ‘The people of this town wanted to help because they loved your mother, they love the hotel and they wanted to help merely out of the goodness of their hearts. But it seems like you might have reduced all that into a business transaction. Here deals are done over tea and cake, or a bottle of wine and a good dinner. Thinking of it now, I’ll bet you didn’t exchange one nicety with those people. Not a single word about their families or the weather?’

Elle didn’t answer so Ned knew he was right. ‘Ah it’s not money people wanted to be rewarded by Elle,’ he said. ‘It’s the fact of the hotel, standing where it’s always been.’