‘And you, my love,’ he said in a raspy voice, patting the top of her hand. ‘Thank you. Your fella here,’ he broke off to nod in Ellis’s direction, ‘went through it all with me on the phone. He told me how you kept going to find out the truth for our Connie.’ He stopped talking, seemingly overcome with emotion as he pulled a hanky from his breast pocket and gave his nose a quick stoic blow, before putting it away again and lifting the flowers up. ‘These are for her, my first truelove, Connie,’ he said. ‘You see, I never got to give her the last lot. Her parents wouldn’t have it.’ And he shook his head, a smile mingled with sorrow set on his face.

‘I know,’ Grace said softly, helping to tuck the blanket, which Terry had passed across, around Jimmy’s knees. ‘But I can’t wait to hear all about it from you.’ And she stood up and looked at Terry. ‘Thank you so much for bringing him here.’

‘It’s my pleasure, Grace. We can’t thank you enough for this. Dad never stopped loving Connie, you know,’ he said, quietly, as he moved around to take charge of the wheelchair.

‘I can hear you, son,’ Jimmy chortled. ‘I might be getting on, but I’ve still got my faculties intact.’ He looked up at Grace and then added, ‘But he’s right, you know. I never stopped loving our Connie.’

‘Right, are you ready then, Dad?’ Terry asked, smiling and shaking his head. ‘To go and meet your daughter?’ And he wheeled Jimmy off towards the powder pink villa.

Grace listened to Ellis as they walked up the path, holding back a bit to allow the family to go first.

‘Are you sure you’re not mad at me?’ he asked, for the third time. ‘It was a huge gamble, not telling you about Lara and Jimmy right away, but I wanted to take the chance … to do a wonderful thing for you, Grace.’