Having timed the waves, she’d tried to estimate how long she had before the next one hit. If she was lucky, chances were she could reach halfway through the arch and cling on to what looked like a good handhold before the retreating wave could drag her out to sea.

She had discarded her gloves, keen to get a better grip on the rock’s surface. In the poor light, she could make out the battered remnants of her fight with the tree in the plantation, which seemed a lifetime ago.

As the wave retracted, Rhona stumbled her way across the seaweed-strewn boulders and launched herself at the handhold, which wasn’t as solid as she’d assumed. Grabbing it dislodged a shower of loose gravel before she found a part firm enough to hang on to.

As the wave approached, she felt the strength of it slam her knees against the rock, then the powerful suck as it desperately tried to take her back with it into the swell. Her fingers torn and bleeding, she hung on determinedly until eventually, as the water retreated, she emerged on the other side of the arch, soaked but triumphant.

‘Blaze,’ she shouted. ‘Here to me, Blaze.’

She searched the distance for the small flash of white amongst the shaggy black coat which would signal the dog’s advance, but it never appeared. Plus the barking had stopped. Rhona made her way as swiftly as she could, stumbling over the rocks that scattered the sand.

According to the map they’d studied in the tent, there was a series of caves this side of the archway, which could be where Seven had taken refuge.

Rhona came on the first one by chance. Shielded by a covering stone, it would have been easy to miss the small entrance, especially now as the tide was working hard to reclaim it. A flash of her torch picked out a semi-filled hole in the sandy floor, which she may well have stumbled into, had the water been deeper. Floating alongside was a wad of plastic netting.

Towards the back, the beam rested on the remains of a camp.

So it looked like Seven had been here. If so, where was she now?

Rhona waded back out, and continued east along the shore. There was a second gully in this direction, one they’d bypassed on the way along the clifftop because Blaze had shown no interest in it, even though it had looked accessible.

Was Seven heading there, with Blaze now following her?

Rhona stepped back into the water to try and get a view of the cliff summit. Were any of the team still up there or had all those who’d followed made their way to the beach? Looking back the way she’d come, she found the promontory now blocked her view of the bay beyond the archway, so she had no idea where Alvis had reached.