‘I recognized you,’ Romy went on, her voice wavering. ‘Finch showed me your photograph. I thought … I wondered if we might talk for a minute. I don’t mean any trouble.’

Grace stared at her, arms still pulled in tight, shoulders raised defensively. But she didn’t speak and Romy begged, ‘Please,’ then held her breath.

‘A minute, then,’ Grace eventually replied. ‘Sam’s meeting me.’

Romy nodded. By tacit agreement the two women began to walk east along the road, the setting sun to their right, the ice-cream van and the remaining tourists behind them. But now Grace had agreed to talk to her, Romy did not know where to begin. It was Grace who spoke first.

‘Sam doesn’t know.’

‘OK … I understand. Listen, I really don’t want to upset you … I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry for what happened to you.’

Grace was silent. Romy could feel the tension coming in waves off the woman walking stiffly beside her.

‘Have you asked him about it?’ she said eventually, in a very small voice.

Romy hesitated. ‘Yes.’

The woman stopped and turned to her, eyes defiant, but her voice faltering. ‘I suppose he denied it?’

‘No.’ She took a long breath. ‘But he remembers it differently.’

Grace shook her head, sucking her lips between her teeth as if to stop herself crying. Romy couldn’t ignore the anguish in her eyes.

‘I believe you, Grace.’ Romy heard the words – sounding so purposeful as they spilt from her mouth – with a strange relief. Because she knew in that moment, witnessing her clear distress, that Michael – whatever expedient interpretation he’d placed on his actions – had done what the girl said he had done.

Her grey eyes brimmed over now. ‘You do?’

She nodded.

Tears slid down her pale cheeks but she brushed them away. ‘That means a lot,’ Grace said, then turned her face away from Romy as she said the next words. ‘I was scared. He really hurt me … He …’ She didn’t go on.

‘I’m so sorry.’ It seemed an inadequate response, but Romy was too shocked by Grace’s words to find better. Spoken like that, with such a chilling lack of emphasis, they could not have been misinterpreted.

Grace shook herself as she dug out a tissue from her shorts’ pocket and blew her nose. Looking at Romy intently, she said, ‘You shouldn’t apologize. You’ve done nothing wrong.’

‘I did. I took Michael’s side.’ She lowered her gaze. ‘I didn’t want to believe he was capable of such a thing.’ But I do now, she thought grimly.

Grace blinked rapidly. She seemed agitated, her gaze flicking to and fro. ‘Sam will be here in a minute. Please, can you go?’