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She smiled. It was like he was reading her mind. ‘That sounds like a great idea. I was just thinking I need a reset. Where? Boston?’

He shook his head. ‘Too frantic. Maybe somewhere quiet.’

‘Down east?’

‘Could do.’ He paused. ‘What about the lake house?’

It was a wonderful idea. The lake house – Mary’s parents’ summer camp, a small house on a remote lake – was a few hours away in Western Maine. Other than a log fire it was unheated and uninsulated, and was only useable in the spring and summer months. She had gone there often as a child, and then, when she and her friends were driving – at Otis’s age – they had gone there unsupervised to hang out for the weekend. There had been some beer and a little pot, but other than that there wasn’t much trouble they could get into in such a remote location.

She and Ryan had taken the kids there often when they were younger, but they had not been up there since earlier in the summer; the kids wanted to be in town with their friends. She supposed that, now Otis had his licence, it might have more appeal as an escape from watchful parental eyes, but to date he had not used it. No one had.

The lake house was a ninety-minute drive north. Maine was full of lakes; some of the larger ones had towns and resorts on them, some were more remote and much quieter. Their place was on a small and lightly trafficked lake. It was a lonely place at its busiest; now summer was drawing to a close it would be positively funereal. After all they’d been through, that felt like a major attraction.

‘OK,’ she said. ‘Let’s do it. I have to go to the office – I need to see Ben, but we can go after that.’

‘Why don’t we do this,’ Ryan said. ‘You go to the office and head up directly from there. I’ll get water and food. Otis will probably want to drive himself and Sally. He’s done it before, earlier in the summer, so he should be OK. We can all meet there.’

Ben sat opposite her, his arms folded. It was an odd situation; Mary owed him an apology for her false accusation, there was no way out of that, but that didn’t mean she was wrong about him muscling in on her business.

She didn’t care, though, not at that moment. Her overriding feeling was relief.

Relief that this was finally over, and life could get back to normal.

Still. Apologies first. As her dad liked to say: Sometimes you just have to eat your vegetables.

‘Ben,’ she said. ‘I want to say I’m sorry – sincerely – about accusing you of posting the photo of me.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘You seemed very certain. What changed?’

‘The police found out who it was.’ She held up her hands. ‘I should have known better than to think you’d do something like that.’

‘I tend to agree.’

‘And this isn’t an excuse, but there’s been a lot going on. A lot of stress. It’s embarrassing, honestly, but I got carried away.’

He shrugged. ‘I appreciate the apology, Mary, I really do. And I accept it unreservedly. We can forget this ever happened. I already have.’

‘Thank you.’

‘I do want to talk about Mack, though. Now you know I haven’t been trying to destroy your reputation so I can work with him, I hope you can see that there’s some merit to me being involved in his legal affairs. Not least that his son’s my age and a close friend. He’s involved in his dad’s business, and it makes sense for me to be as well. For continuity.’

She was still not sure his motives were as pure as he made out, but there was some logic to his position.

‘I think that makes sense,’ she said. ‘We can work together. I’m not sure now’s the right time, but we can sort out the details later.’

He nodded. ‘I think that will prove to be in the best interests of all parties.’ He got to his feet. ‘And Mary? Whatever’s been happening, I hope it’s OK.’

‘It is now,’ she said.

‘You should take a break. Get away for a while.’

‘We’re going to,’ she said. ‘We’re going to head up to camp. We have a lake house in the family.’

‘Lovely,’ he said. ‘Where is it?’

‘Chalmers Pond,’ she said. ‘Up past Bethel.’

‘Lovely,’ he said again. ‘That sounds ideal. You need a break.’