“Shut up and listen to me, Derek. I came back to tell you that I no longer want to be married to you. I want a divorce.”

“Have you gone mad, woman? How—”

“No, I have finally come to my senses. There’s no time now to discuss the details but that’s my decision and I wanted you to know it today. Here. Now. So that I can celebrate my release in the wild.”

“The wild? What are you—”

“I am sure you will do your level best to make this difficult for me, but you’re that side and I am this side and I am going to walk away now and picture my life without you.”

“No! Faye! You’re insane.” He started laughing. The pitch was unusually high for Derek. There was a hysteria to it that made her realise there was something more to his behaviour.

He gasped and shouted, “Go to the rope and help me across.”

“Have you been drinking? What else have you taken?”

He ignored her, hobbling upstream to where the ropes bounced on the water, and then inching his way down the bank towards the water.

“Derek! Don’t be stupid!”

The water, reeds and large boulders made it difficult for Faye to walk upstream. By the time she got to the rope, Derek had waded into the water up to his thighs and was holding onto the rope with two hands.

“Get out!” she screamed, grabbing onto the other side of the cable.

He stopped, stared into the water and then raised his eyes to meet hers. His were hooded, glassy-looking.

“I can make it,” he said, his voice shrill now. “Get to her before Geoff. Rescue her.”

“Don’t be an idiot. Get out of the water and go to the cabin. Sleep off whatever you have in your system. Wait for the rangers. I have to get back to Clare.”

“No! I’m coming with you!”

He took another step into the water, lost his footing and stumbled, sinking to his chest.

“Derek!” she screamed.

He pulled himself up using the rope, and began laughing again.

“Get out!” she shouted, angrier than ever. “If you don’t turn around and get out of the river, I will tell everyone how you ignored the rangers’ warnings about the rain and created this whole mess.”

He stared at her.

“You’re pathetic, Faye. ‘I will tell everyone . . .’ What are you, three?”

“Get out of the river.”

Derek loosely held onto the rope with one hand. Despite having stumbled, he ignored the fact that if he slipped or if the rope jerked suddenly and he was unable to hold onto it, he’d be swept downstream and almost certainly drown. Faye held onto the rope from the other side, as if it might help. He looked at her, his mouth twisted in a sneer.

“Get out of the river,” she repeated.