On the footpath, I assume they would have turned to the beach. The sound of the sea would cover any voices. Yet as I pick my way down, I don’t see the white jacket, so I retrace my steps and make my way to the old watchtower, keeping myself hidden. From the sounds I can tell what is happening and my stomach turns. The outline of Beth Venn’s pale pink dress shimmers ten feet from me. She is watching, she must have been waiting here for them. A honey trap, but not as I’d expected it. I remain glued to the spot behind the trunk of a fir tree. Hoping that I am wrong, praying. But then I hear my husband’s voice as he climaxes. I sink to the ground covering my mouth. My stomach threatens to revolt while my mind puts everything together. His role is hardly a secret but mine is. It has to stay that way.

First Ralf Venn leaves and walks towards the beach. Then Allan goes through the gate to the garden. Beth is last. The moonlight catches the metal object in her hand. My heart falls further. I hear another set of footsteps behind me. I run before I am seen.

62. Diana

62

Diana

4 August 1962, 10.20 p.m.

Diana shook as she crept upstairs. The music was loud so no one would hear her, but she might be seen. Her right hand was covered in chocolate up to her wrist. When she had seen Daddy, she had leaned back and her hand went to the bottom of the glass dish. Even now her stomach turned as she reached the bathroom in the hallway. At the sink she ran the tap, trying to get the chocolate off her fingers.

‘I’ll be down in a minute,’ a woman’s voice said. Diana turned the tap off and grabbed the hand towel, wiping her fingers and her face. Chocolate covered the white surface. It looked awful. She held it tight as she raced back to her room before she could be found out.

Closing her bedroom door, she leaned against it. Her heart beat so hard she could hardly breathe. Her head felt wrong, all swimmy. Tucking the hand towel into her dirty clothes pile, she tried to hide it. But the stained white kept peering out at her.

She turned out her bedside light and walked to the window. Below, light from the rooms fell onto the garden. The noise was loud but the sound of her heart beat was louder still. What had she seen? Where was Mummy? What would she do? She rested her head on the glass and turned her dolls around. She didn’t want them to see what was outside.