Cromer

Cromer is a seaside town on the north Norfolk coast whose significance in the novel comes from a reported sighting there: Rodney sees someone whom Chrissie and Rodney believe may be Ruth’s possible source. The town becomes the setting for Ruth’s uncertainty about whether to pursue a connection between herself and a stranger glimpsed at work.

Setting

Cromer is described as a seaside town in north Norfolk. Chrissie and Rodney visit it, and Rodney later wanders along side streets off the High Street. The account places the sighting not in a private or isolated space but inside a large, glass-fronted office, where people work at desks, walk about, and talk.

The Reported Sighting

While Chrissie and Rodney are apart in Cromer, Rodney notices a person inside the open-plan office whom he thinks could be Ruth’s possible source. He tells Chrissie about the sighting when they meet again. Chrissie asks him to describe what he saw, but his account cannot establish much about the person; the identification remains a conjecture rather than a confirmed connection.

After returning, Chrissie tells Ruth about the sighting, and she and Rodney consider driving Ruth to Cromer. Ruth is unsure whether she ought to act on the report. The town therefore becomes the destination of a possibility that is emotionally compelling but evidentially uncertain: the stranger’s workplace offers Ruth a glimpse of a potential origin, while the distance between a brief observation and reliable identification remains unresolved.