ECHOES

THE STORY SO FAR: Travel writer Liv Potter has returned to the picturesque mountain village of Gordes in Provence to complete a work project. It is almost four decades since she was last in the region, on a long, stressful family holiday, during which time her parents’ already rocky marriage disintegrated further. Basking in summer heat and surrounded by fields of sweet-smelling lavender, Liv happily settles into a top-floor apartment above cafes, cake shops and quaint fountain-filled squares. Years earlier, the 15-year-old Liv, then using her full name of Olivia, is desperate to escape her warring parents and find somewhere cool and quiet to read. Sneaking away from their rented house early one morning, Olivia stumbles upon a serene, green pond where a woman of her mother’s age bathes, completely naked. As she hides behind a tree observing the woman and two towel-wrapped girls at the water’s edge, a man suddenly appears behind her.

July 1985

‘Are you spying on us?’

The man stood less than 6ft away from Olivia, blocking her exit back along the sparse path through the trees.

The only other escape route was behind her, down the steep incline to the pond, to the laughing girls and the naked woman.

So, really, she had no choice. Despite the exquisite coolness of the wood, a trickle of perspiration ran down her back. Her heart hammered. If she couldn’t run, there was only one thing for it. Olivia