Alice balls her fists, frustrated by this woman. Though in equal measure she feels for her. This isn’t Christine’s fault. She’s only been in the position for a few days, and, in the woman’s own words, she’s been thrown in the deep end. Where is Cameron Patterson, after all? Why isn’t he supporting Christine? So much money must have gone into renovating the house, and yet he’s hired a bumbling woman to run it.

*

‘Hey, guys,’ Faith says, poking her head out from the TV lounge as Alice and Leon leave Christine adjusting her silver-thread cardigan. Alice wants to keep walking, pretend she hasn’t seen her. She wants some time out away from everyone, to get out of her wet clothes – to get her head straight. She’s tempted to run up the stairs and into her room, ignore Faith, but she knows she can’t. Faith is her friend.

She and Leon pad over to the TV lounge. Faith has changed out of her heels and little black dress, and looks more like the woman Alice knows, in her dungarees and trainers, her hair pulled into a high ponytail. Is her change of clothes an act of rebellion against Mitch? She hopes so.

They make their way into the lounge, and Faith freezes Jamie Lee Curtis’s petrified face on the huge TV screen with the remotes.

‘I’ll get rid of Jamie entirely, shall I?’ she says, looking back at Alice, seeming to pick up on her anxiety.

‘Thanks,’ Alice says. ‘I’m not in the mood for a horror movie right now.’

Faith ends the film, and puts on a news channel, lowering the volume.

‘So how did you get on out there?’ Faith says. ‘You’re both drenched.’ She peers past them towards the door. ‘Where’s Mitch?’

‘At the bar downing a double brandy,’ Leon says.

‘Typical, Mitch – he loves his brandy.’ She looks at the dress draped over Alice’s arm.

Alice fiddles with the damp collar, not in the mood to go through everything that happened again, but knowing she has to. ‘We found it down on the rocks,’ she says. ‘This was the yellow ghost – my dress was the yellow ghost.’

‘Oh God. How did it get down there?’

‘We’ve no idea. It was locked in my room.’ Alice is trying to be strong, but tears are close. ‘I want to go home,’ she whispers. ‘I hate this place.’

‘Oh, Alice, if you hate it here that much you should leave,’ Faith says, taking her in her arms.

‘We can’t,’ Leon says. ‘It’s not as simple as that. The boat has slipped its mooring. It’s out in the middle of the sea.’

Faith releases Alice, moves her gaze to Leon. ‘How the hell—?’