‘Me, too. At least I can sort out your living space. As usual, you’ve left everything to chance. Not even a decent blanket on your bed! I saw a few things poking out of a chest in the spare room there. One of them may have been a blanket. I’m going to stickybeak and see if there’s anything in there that’s clean and dry.’

I didn’t have the heart to stop her, but when, a few moments later, I heard a gasp, I shot to my feet and hurried into the brightly lit bedroom to find her bending over an open timber chest. The shoes in the timber chest were worn and threadbare, some of them – the leather ones – dusty with fungal blooms. I felt my breath catch as I held one shoe and then the next, remembering the wild excitement that had run through me as I had once dashed about madly on the beach, collecting them.

‘They were here,’ Marieke choked. ‘All along. Why didn’t I think to ask?’

She knelt beside me and, together, we sifted through the detritus of my childhood, the scent of the trapped sea rising around us like mist. Gerrit found us there when he returned, a few stems of bedraggled lavender clutched in one hand.

‘I should have told you,’ he said, his eyes downcast. ‘I knew I should have asked before taking them the day of the funeral. I feel terrible.’

‘Did you organise to have the plaque installed near Saeftinghe?’ I asked.

Gerrit nodded.

‘It was the least I could do, under the circumstances. It felt like closure.’

‘Then I forgive you,’ I said. ‘It was kind of you.’

We were silent a moment longer.

‘Maybe you could come out to the sanctuary with me tomorrow?’ Gerrit suggested. ‘It’s a quiet day. Take some time off and come see the orphans. You come, too,’ he said, handing Marieke the lavender.

The carpark of the seal sanctuary was deserted when we reached the facility at 10am. Gerritt helped Marieke out of the car and led us over to a locked door.

‘This entrance is for the staff,’ he said. ‘Visitors usually enter via the main gate near the gift shop. We don’t open for another hour. But if I can’t sneak in a few friends, then what’s the point of all my years of dedicated service?’ He smirked at Marieke who returned his smile. She looked pretty in her pale sweater and dungarees, her cheeks flushed from the walk she’d taken earlier across the dunes.