And, for now at least, so had Honor. Fatigue threatened to overcome her. She walked back to the van and got into the back. Within minutes she was sound asleep. She woke to the sound of her phone and was relieved to see Bill’s name on the screen. No bad news from Nevis then.

Stretching herself she rubbed the damp cold from her legs and took the call. Bill had spoken with a bargee friend named Alex Penney who might be able to offer a place on a boat down at the Harbourside in exchange for maintenance work.

‘It’s not his boat. He’s watching it for some friends, said he’d need to check with them. If you drop by the Helene tomorrow morning he said he might be able to sort something out. She’s in the Floating Harbour near the Arnolfini Theatre. They call them longboats in that part of the country, by the way, but you probably already know that.’

‘Yeah. Got caught out by that when I bought the Kingfisher.’ She’d answered the advert for a longboat in the local press in Ludlow when the money from Zoe’s will had come through and asked Mike, the Kingfisher’s previous owner, if she was a narrowboat as well as being long. Mike had had a good time with that. ‘Thanks, Bill, you’re all the aces.’

There’s a pause before a hopeful sounding voice says, ‘I am?’

They’ve been round the houses on this over the years. ‘My brilliant friend,’ Honor says.

‘Ah yes,’ Bill says, sounding crestfallen. ‘Of course.’

She checks the time on her phone. It is 6.45 p.m. Nothing from Nevis. She taps out Any news? An answer comes back. Texted N&B twice at 15:12 and 18:23. No reply yet.

It’s hard to imagine how Narinder and Bikram must be feeling. Your own daughter, your darling child. The thought brings a sickening churn of the stomach. Doing her best to shake it off Honor makes her way round to the driver’s cabin, turns the key in the ignition, fires up Gerry and, making a three-point turn in the street, heads off in the direction of the city. Though it’s not quite sunset yet and she drives with the last gloaming in the rear-view mirror, the only bright light comes from the lamps strung across the span of the gorge.