When she had eventually managed to get her mother settled, Grace had then been so wired that she hadn’t been able to sleep at all. Instead her thoughts had meandered into a destructive spiral of self-loathing brought on by going over all the little digs Cora had given her recently. Forgetful. Nosey. Rough-handed. Lazy – this had been shortly after 2 a.m. when Grace hadn’t come into Cora’s bedroom quickly enough to check out the noise coming from the street outside that had woken her mother up. When Grace had then got back into her own bed she had analysed each of Cora’s criticisms, turning them over inside her head, searching her memory for all the shreds of evidence that corroborated the words, so they were now hanging around her like a millstone dragging her down and making her feel quite useless.

Grace looped her bag over the back of the chair by her desk, then straightened her hair and inwardly rallied herself so as to appear outwardly poised and breezy. Mindfulness. Or ‘in the moment’ as her counsellor called it. A strategy he had taught her to help her focus and to not let her mind wander away with self-sabotaging thoughts.

‘Here she is! Our wonderful Girl Friday.’ Betty came bustling towards Grace and put an arm around her shoulders, giving them a little reassuring jiggle as she propelled Grace forward. ‘Ellis, this is our Grace. She keeps the whole place going and we’d be absolutely lost without her,’ Betty said kindly, lifting Grace’s spirit. Blushing, she said, ‘Hello,’ and put out her hand. Ellis wasn’t at all how she had imagined he might be – big and brash and dressed in long baggy shorts and a baseball cap with a Yankees logo on; she realised now that this stereotypical image was way off. He was younger too, late thirties perhaps, and wearing a dark navy, impeccably cut suit and a crisp white open-necked shirt. He was also very attractive; tall, athletic, with a natural tan that accentuated his toffee-coloured eyes and dark brown hair.

‘Hello. Pleased to meet you, Grace.’ He shook her hand, firm and self-assured. ‘And thank you for thinking to email the images of the artwork over to me. I’m very excited to see them in real life, as it were.’ He smiled, showing perfect white teeth and making his eyes crinkle at the edges.