I didn’t add that Maya was looking forward to spending the day with him off-site. Surely, he couldn’t be so dense that he hadn’t worked that out for himself.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘it would be great, but taking her would leave us too short staffed here.’

‘But I think…’

‘For fuck’s sake, Liza,’ he bit back, roughly pulling the helmet off and dumping it on the ground along with the chainsaw. ‘What you think is irrelevant. How Wynter’s Trees works and who knows what about it, is no concern of yours now, is it?’

Tears stung my eyes as his words hit their mark, but I refused to let them fall.

‘Perhaps not,’ I snapped back, ‘but you know full well that I’ve offered to assist wherever and whenever I can. I don’t understand why you’re carrying on as if I won’t help.’

‘Because I can’t allow myself to start relying on you!’ he yelled.

‘Not just for one day?’ I shouted back.

‘Not for a single hour.’

‘But that’s absurd.’

‘It is what it is,’ he shrugged.

‘I don’t understand…’

‘I know you don’t,’ he cut in. ‘But I’m not going to spell it out for you.’

He snatched the helmet back up and shoved it on his head, snapping both ear defenders and the visor into place, before firing the chainsaw up again.

‘Maya stays here tomorrow!’ he shouted over the din. ‘End of.’

I threw up my hands and walked away.

I don’t know what happened between me walking out of the plantation and six o’clock the following morning, but I awoke to the sound of the truck and trailer rattling down the drive, Bandit’s distant bark and the tinkle of Maya’s melodious laugh as she locked the gate. There was a note on the kitchen counter when I went downstairs.

Dad said I had to take Maya.

He’s coming in early. We’ll be back by 8pm.

I screwed it up and threw it in the bin, refusing to let its succinctness further rattle me, before pummelling my skin under the shower and heading out into the crisp, frosty air.

The morning got off to a slow start, which gave me the chance to catch up with everyone in the beach huts. I found Sue replenishing her stock of festive bunting.

‘I’m selling it as fast as I can sew it,’ she happily told me. ‘Not that I’m complaining. But what’s up with you? You’ve got a face like a smacked…’

‘Nothing,’ I brightly said. ‘I’m all right.’

She eyed me beadily. ‘What time did the dynamic duo set off?’ she asked, with a nod to the drive.

I wondered if it was a coincidence that she’d leapt straight from asking if anything was wrong with me to Ned and Maya’s big day out. I hoped it was a coincidence.