‘What about a cuppa down at the pier?’

‘The pier it is, then.’ Nancy picked up the heavy tray and headed back to the kitchen. ‘See you there, six o’clock.’

It was only mid-September, but a sudden cold snap was a reminder that autumn was here. Kath wrapped her coat more tightly around her uniform, walking swiftly to keep warm. The seafront always felt forlorn without its adornment of holidaymakers. Deckchairs were stacked at the side of the promenade, their canvas seats flapping in quiet resignation, the empty beach bleak without crowds of children and their sandcastles, and the bandstand silent save for imagined echoes of music from the summer months.

‘Any chance of a quick cup?’ she called as she approached the tea shack – a converted caravan that would shortly be towed away for winter – where the owner was taking down his signs. His scowl transformed into a smile of recognition.

‘Well, I’ll be damned. You’re Bob Motts’s kid, aren’t you? You’ve grown a bit since I last saw you, but I’d know that head of curls from anywhere. How’s the old boy getting on, then?’

‘My father?’

‘We was on the rails together,’ the man said. ‘Till I retired, that is. Just doing this to eke out me pension. He still there?’

‘Oh yes. Says he needs to keep me in the manner to which I’ve become accustomed.’

The man laughed. ‘And that mother of yours? What a catch she was, with that hair. Both keeping well, I hope?’

‘They’re fine, thanks.’

‘Well, give them my regards. Ted Copper. Now, a cuppa, was it? Milk and sugar?’

She’d drunk the tea and Mr Copper had locked up the caravan and departed by the time Nancy appeared.

‘Sorry to be so late,’ she panted.

‘It’s freezing out here. Why the cloak and dagger stuff, Nancy?’

Nancy shook her head. ‘It’s a bit tricky, Kath. I’m not sure how to tell you, to be perfectly honest.’

A chilly gust of wind whistled across the beach. ‘Spit it out, then.’

‘Me and my fella was under there, you know, having a little snog.’ She pointed to the shore end of the pier, where the beach sloped upwards underneath the boardwalk. ‘It’s quite dark under there so we couldn’t be seen and I just happened to look up, taking a breather, and saw two figures approaching. I suppose they thought they couldn’t be seen either. It was Captain Burrows I recognised first, and then I saw it was your brother with him.’

‘Did you say hello?’

‘Gimme a break. We was in the middle of . . . you know?’

Kath always felt such an innocent in Nancy’s company. ‘I suppose they’d been for a drink and were taking some air.’

Nancy looked around, and even though the beach and promenade were deserted, she lowered her voice. ‘You don’t get it, do you?’

Kath shook her head.

‘They were properly together. I mean, like holding hands.’