On the next lounger sat Ursula, watching something on her phone. She was blonde and pretty but, like her tattoos, it was on the surface. Zia’s beauty took more absorbing, from her slow sensual smile to the way the light played in her eyes. Ursula must have caught his movement because she glanced up, held a finger to her lips, slipped her feet into flip-flops and stole towards him.

He halted out of earshot of the sleeping Zia and waited for her to reach him. She murmured, ‘I think she’s exhausted with all the bullshit.’

He nodded. ‘Not surprised.’ He held out the sheet of paper and explained his sketch. Before she could just take it and turn away, he asked, ‘Do you think Zia will be OK?’

Ursula grimaced. ‘She’s strong and self-contained but finding out the truth has been a big deal. She’s grown up without much family. It’s a bitter blow to know she missed out on her birth mother and that her birth father viewed her as a disaster.’ She shaded her eyes, her expression regretful. ‘I’m afraid she’s had few constants in her life. When I got pneumonia she completely overreacted and bellowed, “Don’t you dare die!” at me in hospital. I was down afterwards because it took ages to return to normal and my husband didn’t seem to get that. But Zia was there for me.’ She gave a wistful smile.

‘You seem to be there for her, too.’ But he thought of Zia telling him about looking in the mirror in the middle of the night and asking herself who she was. Alone. ‘I’m afraid I wasn’t able to give her a reassuring picture of her father.’

‘She told me, before she nodded off.’ She sighed. ‘I have a big family and great parents and I tend not to appreciate them. When I lived in Ireland they were in my face, all over my life, up in my business. I craved privacy. But when I look at Zia, I realise I was lucky.’

‘Much the same for me. Is there no man in Zia’s life?’ The casualness of his enquiry belied the level of interest he felt in the answer. He wasn’t stupid enough to have put too much reliance on Zia not wearing a wedding ring. She might easily have a significant other. Not everyone was Nicoletta, yearning for a band of gold.

Arching a brow, Ursula said, ‘Not just now. There was until March but then he – well, there was a situation. He’d like to patch things up but …’ She shrugged, her blonde hair falling into her eyes. Cut the way it was, so long in front, it did that a lot.