‘No, Dad, but thank you. I love you.’ She let her eyes sweep her family, whose sadness slipped from them and pooled on the floor. They all looked a little slumped, weighed down by a mixture of disappointment and impotence. ‘And I’m sorry.’

‘You have nothing to be sorry for! Nothing!’ Her dad’s voice caught.

The money! You have worked hard and saved hard and spent money, and now this . . . and Mum works for Loretta and I’ve caused all of this! I feel sick . . . Shock and grief rendered her unable to express this.

‘And we love you,’ he continued, ‘more than you’ll ever know.’

Merrin shut the front door behind her and ran across the cobbles. It felt good to be exerting her body, as if a little of the tightly packed grief in her system was released. She looked out towards the cove and spied Jarvis holding the bottom of a tall aluminium ladder and Robin leaning out with his arms outstretched, removing the sign from the side of the Old Boat Shed. She was thankful to them both, but especially her mate Jarvis, who had been so wonderful when she needed him most. It was as she made her way towards the back of the pub that she spied Ruby walking along Fore Street, coming up towards the slipway.

‘Hey!’ she called, and waved. Her sister, she noted, had tucked the long skirt of her dress into her knickers, probably so she could run more easily. She was also, rather ominously, holding one hand inside the other. Merrin broke into a run until she caught up with her.

‘Did you find him? Where is he?’ She spoke quickly, her stomach bunched at the thought of facing him and her breath coming in nervous pants.

Ruby couldn’t look her in the eye and kicked at the ground. ‘Yeah, I found him.’

‘Did you talk to him? What did he say?’ Her chest heaved with urgency.

‘Not much. He wanted to know where you were,’ Ruby explained, and just to know that he had asked after her was enough to send a jolt of positivity through Merrin. Maybe all was not lost.

‘What did you say? Is he waiting for me?’ Merrin’s voice had gone up an octave.

‘Not exactly, and yes, he did ask where you were, but I don’t know if it was because he wanted to find you or wanted to avoid you,’ Ruby levelled.

‘So where is he now? Tell me!’ Merrin’s tone was that of someone whose desperation was not matched by the person she was talking to. Her fingers splayed and twitched; time was of the essence.

‘I think he was heading out on the coast path.’ Her sister offered this quietly.

The coast path, out towards Reunion Point, the place he proposed . . .

‘What have you done to your hand?’

‘Nothing.’ Ruby hid it behind her back.