‘We should get you a matching necklace with an “M” instead of an “A”,’ said Alice.

‘Then will we look like sisters?’ Marnie asked.

‘That’s exactly what we’ll look like!’

They’d gone for a walk, Marnie wearing the necklace, and they’d seen Camille deVillars drifting through the park wearing a kimono that looked as if it had been made of macramé over a patchwork dress. Her fair hair had been tied up in a messy bun, wisps of it loose all over her face. She was a life-size fairy, her smile wide, her teeth gappy. She was out of place amongst the holidaymakers and at the same time entirely at home.

‘Look at her!’ said Alice. ‘Isn’t she amazing?’

‘Yeah,’ said Marnie, who was used to Mrs deVillars’ Bohemian ways.

‘She doesn’t look like the kind of person you’d expect to be running a holiday village like this.’

‘She was born here,’ Marnie said. And then she repeated a phrase she’d heard Angharad Jones use more than once. ‘It’s all she’s ever known.’

Marnie knew the park’s history because her father had a book about it given to him by Mr deVillars, a copy of the same book that Guy later gave to Alice. Denise didn’t like the book. She said it was deVillars family propaganda, a poorly written example of self-indulgent vanity publishing. Probably she was cross about it because she believed John was too much at Mr deVillars’ beck and call. ‘You’re like a dog,’ she used to say, ‘it’s embarrassing how you’re so eager to please him in return for the slightest bit of attention,’ and when she said this John would sigh but keep his mouth shut.

Marnie didn’t look at the book when Denise was around but secretly she loved to study the pictures, which dated back to when the park was established in the early 1960s by Camille’s parents, Lord Mills and his French-born wife. There were fantastic photographs of happy campers queuing outside the refectory where meals were served three times a day in two sittings, and the pictures of the fun and games that would ensue: beauty parades and knobbly-knee competitions, glamorous grannies, talent shows. Marnie thought it must have been wonderful!