The next day when Belinda went down to the cabin with the usual breakfast croissants, Chloe greeted her with a sad smile. Charlie and Aimee took their croissants and went to sit with Bernie and BB as usual and Belinda glanced up at her daughter as she placed a cup of coffee in front of her.

‘What’s wrong?’

Chloe shook her head. ‘Nothing anyone can do anything about.’ She pulled her croissant apart and spread some marmalade over it. ‘It’s just I can’t stop thinking about Granddad. I’ve thought more about him in the last twenty-four hours than I have done in twenty-three years.’

‘Given the circumstances,’ Belinda said gently, ‘I’m not surprised. He’d been written out of our lives, but suddenly being here, he was pushed to the front of mine too.’ She took a sip of coffee. ‘Would you rather I hadn’t said anything to you? Not told you he was here in Brittany; that he was ill? Maybe it was unfair of me to burden you with both a first and final memory of him.’

‘No, I’m glad you told me. Granny keeping family secrets was bad enough, so don’t you start.’ Chloe sighed. ‘Sorry, that sounded harsh, I didn’t mean it to.’

Belinda was silent for a few moments. ‘I honestly don’t know what to say or how to tell you to stop overthinking things. I’m struggling with that myself.’ She gave a rueful smile. ‘I guess once you get back to Max and start packing up for your new life in the Vendée, memories of yesterday’s visit will start to fade and merge into being something that touched you deeply but didn’t in the end have a detrimental effect on your life. I hope so anyway.’

‘But what about you?’ Chloe asked quietly. ‘It’s not going to be easy for you to forget what you’ve learnt and seen since you’ve been here.’

Belinda was quiet for several seconds before she took a deep breath. ‘I think, and this applies to both of us, it’s impossible to turn the clock back and there’s nothing we can do to change things, so we have to accept and try to move on. You will focus on a happy life with Max and the twins and I’ll concentrate on you all.’

‘Does that mean you’ll come to the Vendée?’

Belinda rubbed her face and eyes. ‘I still haven’t decided, to be honest. Give me a bit more time to think about it, okay?’ She finished her coffee. ‘Right, it’s your last full day. What do you want to do? Alain has suggested we have a barbecue this evening. Invite Fern, Anouk, and Bernie of course, and any of the campers who want to join us. What do you think?’