Two days later Holly stood in the sitting room of the little flat and looked around for one last time. She and Ivy had spent some happy times there and she was sad to leave but she knew she had no choice. Staying would have meant having to see Richard at the hospital and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to bear it. Her heart was well and truly broken. Far better to go and make a fresh start elsewhere somehow.

She closed the door and went down to the shop to hand the key back to Miss May and say her goodbyes to everyone. Dora and Enid, the seamstresses, both gave her a hug and a kiss as did Martha, Miss May’s sister, then Miss May slipped an envelope into her hand.

‘What’s this?’ Holly asked.

‘You paid your rent till the end of the month,’ the woman informed her. ‘So I’m giving you some back plus a bit extra to tide you over until you start a new job.’

‘Oh, but you really don’t have to do that,’ Holly objected as colour flamed in her cheeks.

‘Shush now!’ Miss May raised a finger to her lips. ‘Just take it. You’ve been a wonderful tenant, I shall never get another like you. Unless our Martha decides to move in that is. Between you and me I think my Wilfred gets on her nerves a bit.’ She giggled. ‘I suppose it’s understandable. He gets on my nerves at times as well. But now get on with you before I start bleating again and don’t forget where we are. If ever you need anything, I’ll be here for you.’

Holly felt her way to the door through a fog of tears. Over the last days she had convinced herself that she could have no more tears left to cry yet still they kept coming.

Soon after she boarded the train, and within minutes London and Richard were far behind her. One chapter of her life was closed and it was time to start another one. There was no turning back now.

The homecoming was all she could have wished for but she found no joy in it. She had left her heart behind in London and was sure that she would never be happy again. That night she lay in bed thinking how cruel life could be. The chances of meeting and falling in love with your own brother must surely be a million to one and yet it had happened. Added to that she really wasn’t sure who she was any more. If her mother and father had never been legally married, then her true name couldn’t be Farthing. That hadn’t even been his real name so was she Holly Elizabeth Garrett, her father’s legal name, or Holly Elizabeth Mason, her mother’s maiden name? She decided not to pursue that line of thought. The name on her birth certificate was Farthing so it would be easier to stick with that.