Liam shrugged. He didn’t refute my claims so I asked Sara to take one corner of the lid while I lifted the other. The dress lay there, nestled among the tissue paper, an enigma spun from gossamer threads, the folds of the skirt spread like the delicate expanse of a butterfly’s wings. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickle.

‘Wow,’ Sara breathed. Her eyes shone. ‘I still can’t get over how amazing it is. How on earth did it survive down there for so long?’

I couldn’t answer. The true circumstances of the dress’s miraculous survival were part of a tale that could not be illuminated by Liam’s science or my investigations into the dress’s provenance. Those who believed in luck or destiny might have had a better appreciation of how the dress came to be lying there for over three centuries and how its unique position, sandwiched between layers of oxygen-free mud, had prevented the material fibres from rotting, protecting it from ravenous shipworms and hungry currents. Was it just coincidence that Bram and his friends happened to be diving the day after the storm washed the sand away from the wreckage? Or was there something else at work that day, something that could not and would never be explained?

I didn’t want to be late for my meeting with Jeanette so, after taking down some observations in my notebook, I sealed the dress back in its box and followed Sara out of the lab and back up the stairs into the exhibition space.

‘Is he always like that?’ she said, as the doors swung shut behind us.

‘You mean Liam?’ I felt my phone vibrate with a message. An email from Jeanette’s secretary, confirming our appointment. Please don’t be late, she’d written at the bottom. Ms Hall’s schedule is extremely busy this afternoon and I’ve only managed to allocate you half an hour. If you aren’t on time, I’m afraid it won’t be possible for her to see you until the exhibition is launched.

‘Yes,’ Sara was saying. ‘Doctor Pinney seems quite old-fashioned. He asked me to get his lunch for him a few times and call this hire-car place to see if there were any better vehicles. I laughed it off, but I’m not a hundred per cent sure he was joking. When I told my boyfriend, he said I must have misheard.’

‘Liam can be difficult,’ I said. ‘He’ll sulk now. I know what he’s like. Just avoid him for the next few hours, if you can.’

Sara grinned. ‘Noted.’

We crossed the room, heading back towards the lobby. As we passed an open doorway, Sara stopped abruptly.

‘You never got to see Maja’s reconstruction,’ she said. ‘You have to meet her. She’s like our patron saint here in Castricum, a warrior for women’s courage.’