Callum was sitting on the wall outside the hotel when I finished work.
He got up as soon as he saw the carrier bag in my hand.
“What's that?”
“Your trainers. Your sweatshirt.”
He looked at the bag without taking it.
“Right.”
“They're dry now.”
He put his hands in his jacket pockets.
“You could have kept them until Sunday.”
“I have shoes.”
He looked down at the old pair. I waited for a joke. It didn't come.
“Can we walk?” he asked.
I passed him the bag and went through the gate with him. We didn't turn towards the sea. He headed up the quieter street behind the shops, where we'd walked yesterday with my broken shoe flapping.
“Mara says you contradicted me,” he said.
“I told her the time.”
“I know what you told her.”
“Then why are we doing it again?”
He stopped beside the shuttered window of an empty shop. I stopped too.
“Because I've had her asking me questions as if she knows something. And she only thinks she knows because you—”
“I was there, Callum.”
A van passed between us and the opposite pavement. We waited for it to go.
“I know,” he said, more quietly.
“Where were you?”
He lifted the carrier bag, twisted its handles together and let it hang again.
“I went round by the hotel.”
I looked at his jacket.
“When?”
“Before I came to meet you.”
“Tess saw someone at ten past eight.”
“Might have been me.”
“Why were you there?”
“Ruby wouldn't stop ringing. I wanted to tell her to leave it.”
“Leave what?”
“This. Coming back. Getting you involved in things between us.”
“Did you speak to her?”
“No. I went through the yard and thought better of it.”
“So why tell Mara you were with me?”
He let out a breath and looked up the street.
“Because I knew what it'd look like. Ruby says things are missing. I say I went round there. Everyone decides it was me.”
He rubbed his eyes with his free hand.
He looked at me again.
“I haven't taken her money.”
I wanted him to sound different. I couldn't have said exactly how. More worried about having lied to me, maybe, instead of angry that I'd made it hard to keep lying to Mara.
The back of my little toe hurt. I shifted my weight to the other foot.
Callum noticed.
“Those shoes.”
“They're all right.”
“Come here.”
“No, I'm not taking them off in the street.”
He almost smiled. Then he glanced at the carrier bag.
“At least wear mine home.”
“I can get home.”
We walked again, slower this time. At the end of the street he turned down the alley to his stairs. I followed him as far as the doorway.
He put the bag on the bottom step and leaned against the wall.
“This is about her things, isn't it?” he said.
“What?”
“You didn't like her coming to mine on Monday.”
I remembered Ruby's grey sleeve in the kitchen doorway.
“I didn't.”
“And now everything I say is wrong.”
“Don't turn it into that.”
“You kissed me in front of her. You wanted her to see. I didn't mind, but I know why you did it.”
My face got hot.
“That doesn't change what time you arrived.”
“I'm saying you're upset.”
“Yes. You've given me something to be upset about.”
He pushed away from the wall.
For a second I thought he was going upstairs. Instead, he came closer and rested his hand on my arm.
“I'm sorry I was late.”
“It's more than being late.”
“I know.”
I looked at his mouth. His lower lip had a little dry split from the wind. Yesterday, after the tea and sandwiches, I had rubbed lip balm on it with my thumb while he pretended to hate being fussed over.
He bent his head towards mine. I put my hand on his chest, and he stopped.
“Lena?”
I didn't push him away. I didn't let him kiss me either.
“You've done this before,” I said.
His hand stayed on my arm.
“Done what?”
“Told Mara I was with you longer than I was. When Oliver Reed's watch went missing.”
He straightened.
“You think I've taken a watch now?”
“No. I'm talking about what you said.”
“I was trying to help you.”
“I know.”
I could see that old photograph again, the one Mara had shown us when she asked whether we'd noticed the watch. She'd pointed to it with her pen. I'd looked as hard as I could, hoping I'd remember it somewhere harmless. Under a towel. Beside the basin. Somewhere we could check.
Then Callum came in and said I'd been helping him downstairs. I had been so relieved I'd nearly cried.
“I went back to Ruby,” I said. “After the linen.”
“And?”
“And you made it sound like I didn't.”
He took his hand off my arm.
“Would you rather I'd let her blame you?”
“She didn't know who'd taken it.”
“Exactly. You'd been there a week. You were scared of losing your room.”
“I remember.”
“So do I.”
He picked up the carrier bag and held it against his leg.
“I stood up for you. I don't think that was such a terrible thing.”
I'd thought it was one of the kindest things anyone had done for me. Even knowing he'd stretched the time, I had kept it beside the plaster and the shore walk as something warm to take out when I needed it.
“You didn't ask me then,” I said.
“Ask you what?”
“To repeat it.”
He looked at the bag.
“It was different.”
“Then stop saying I'd do this for you.”
The door behind him was open. I could see his stairs and the little bend where the handrail disappeared. Part of me wanted to go up with him, sit on his bed and get out of the awful shoes. I wanted him to give me tea and tell me we'd still be all right on Sunday.
“Are we still going?” he asked.
I swallowed.
“I've got a job to start.”
“That's not what I asked.”
“I haven't cancelled anything.”
He nodded slowly.
“You know I want you there.”
“Then tell me what's happening with Ruby.”
“I've told you.”
“You've told me she keeps coming back. You haven't told me why she's frightened.”
“Because that's what she wants you to think.”
I dropped my hand from his chest.
“I need to go.”
He stayed where he was this time. I didn't look back until I reached the alley mouth. He was still holding the bag, one of the trainer laces hanging out over his wrist.
At the hotel, Ruby was coming down the stairs carrying a plate and a mug.
She stopped when she saw me.
“Have you eaten?” she asked.
“No.”
“There's bread.”
I moved aside so she could reach the kitchen door.
“I spoke to him,” I said.
She waited.
“Can we talk?”
Ruby looked at the plate in her hand, then pushed the door open with her shoulder.
“Come in.”