‘Yes,’ I said, my face growing hot, ‘difficult. We haven’t all got a perfect family dynamic like the one you and Hope enjoy. Some of us struggle to work with our nearest and dearest.’

Sophie shook her head and sighed.

‘So, the farm’s in trouble, is it?’

‘Yes,’ I said, hoping I wasn’t speaking out of turn and that if she did tell Sam, then it wouldn’t go any further, ‘it is, and the last thing Joe needs is more local resentment. Not that I really understand why he’s facing any. Things are hard enough for him right now.’

‘I know you probably think we’re all wrong to be looking out for Sam,’ Sophie sighed, ‘but there was more happened the night of that crash than any of us really knows, Tess. There must have been.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, for a start, if it was all so cut and dried then Sam would have been arrested and charged, wouldn’t he?’

‘Yes,’ I agreed, because I couldn’t deny it, ‘I suppose he would . . .’

‘And he’s always been such a cautious and conscientious lad.’

Another customer arrived, cutting our conversation off again, but it didn’t stop me wondering if Sophie was right. Was there more to what happened than either Sam or Joe were prepared to admit? And if that was the case, would it ever be possible for either of them to truly leave the past behind and move on?

*

My head was starting to spin again so I took myself off for a walk along the beach before heading to the cottage. I hadn’t been back all that long, when someone rapped sharply on the door.

‘Sophie,’ I said, surprised to see her. ‘What’s up?’

‘Well,’ she said, stepping inside as I opened the door wider to let her in. ‘I was thinking over our conversation while I was closing up and I wanted to come and apologize.’

‘Apologize,’ I frowned. ‘What for?’

‘For making you feel as though you had to tell me about your friendship with Joe for a start,’ she said, as we sat together on the sofa. ‘It was never my intention to pry, but there’s still so many loose ends to do with the crash that, whenever Joe Upton’s name is even mentioned, it sets us all on edge.’

‘I see.’

‘Sam’s grandmother was his last living relative,’ she went on, ‘and she died, leaving him the pub, just a few weeks after he came out of his coma. Being witness to the way he’s had to cope and the extent of what he’s been through, has perhaps made some of us a little too forthright in his defence.’

‘He’s obviously been through a lot,’ I conceded, ‘but then, so have the Uptons.’

‘That’s true.’

‘Thank goodness Sam has Hope,’ I said, thinking that at least he wasn’t entirely alone in the world.