She had been home for three days and in all that time her mum had barely left the bedroom. Three days that could have been an hour or a month. The clock was relegated to those with a regular routine; those whose entire lives had not been fractured by an all-consuming loss that distorted time.

Miguel had called often, offering in his sweet way to do whatever might help take away her pain, but she knew there was nothing to be done. Pain like this had to be lived, endured and, if you were lucky, you might, in time, come out the other side. This she knew more than most.

Ruby arrived and proceeded to fill the kettle. The sight of her sister’s beautifully rounded bump was enough to solicit the smallest of smiles; it was a good, good thing in this, the worst of times.

‘She still asleep?’ Ruby took the chair opposite the sofa.

‘Still in bed, but I don’t think she’s sleeping. She just lies there.’

Ruby nodded. ‘I don’t blame her. I wish I could just go to bed, but this little one has other ideas.’ She ran her hand over her stomach. ‘And Jarvis is in a bad way too, so I’m keeping an eye on him. We’re taking it in turns to fall apart – it’s like there’s some grief rota. And when one of us sinks the other goes into responsible adult mode until the buzzer goes and we switch. I feel like I’ve either been sleeping or crying for days.’

‘You have.’

‘Yep.’ Ruby let the next bout of tears trickle down her face and rubbed at her eyes. ‘I’m exhausted.’

Merrin nodded her understanding; they all were.

‘Tell me again, was Jarvis with him at the end?’ She wanted to know the details.

Ruby picked at a loose thread on the hem of her sweatshirt. ‘Yes. They’d only been in for an hour or so, everything on the boat was packed away and Jarv was washing the deck down, and he heard a . . . a thud, and when he looked up towards the rear deck, Dad was . . . he was lying on the nets. Jarvis thought he was mucking about, but then when he didn’t move, he called him and ran over, he could see something wasn’t right.’ Ruby stopped to catch her breath. ‘Robin was on the quayside and Jarv yelled to him and Robin called the ambulance. They got here as soon as they could and while they were waiting, Mac and Mr Everit, who are on the lifeboats, both came running down. I think they’d been in the pub, and they’re both trained, obviously. They did CPR but it . . .’ Her sob was loud and raw. ‘It was too late, Merrin! He’d already died.’

She felt hot tears fall down her face where her skin was already sore from crying. ‘I can’t believe it.’