Eva pulled her hand back, shocked by the heat. She had not expected the stove to be on and so had simply reached out for the pan to pick it up by its rim.

The dull pain of a burn was already throbbing in her fingers as she plunged her hand into the cold water standing in the sink. She pulled the plug out and turned the cold tap on with her other hand, so that she could hold the affected area under cold running water.

As she stood there, attempting to protect herself from a nasty blister and a scar, she cast her gaze out across the beach. She knew that she often took for granted that she lived right on the beach, or as near as dammit at any rate. The deck outside the kitchen door ended a few feet from the sea wall, and the beach was the other side of that.

The sun was setting, and she could see Jake sitting in his usual place, playing. She wondered why he always came down to the beach to play at sunset; he would get a lot more from busking in the daytime, particularly on a Sunday when there were tourists.