During the time she had lived in The Crow’s Nest, Amber had grown to like the Jennings. In fact, they and Trampy Ned, who came to the door often for food, were sometimes the only people she saw for days apart from Barnaby.

When she nodded, he lowered his head and repeated, ‘Again, I’m so sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you. I’m going to try and make it up to you, I promise.’

‘It’s all in the past now. What’s done is done an’ to keep sayin’ sorry ain’t goin’ to change things, so can we just get on with things now?’

‘Of course.’ He made for the door to see what he could salvage of the flowers that had been trampled in the front garden and half an hour later he returned with a large bunch.

‘It’s not actually as bad as it looked but these had been knocked over and it seems a shame to throw them away. I thought you might like to put them in a vase?’ He placed them awkwardly on the table to the side of her.

Amber was in the process of feeding Charlotte her lunch and she paused to stare at the blooms. No one had ever given her flowers before and even though they were only ones that had damaged stems she felt a blush burn into her cheeks, but she said nothing, as Barnaby turned and left the room. She had to admit that he’d worked beside her tirelessly since they’d returned to find the house in a mess again. He had insisted that he should be the one to scrub the graffiti from the wall and she’d been surprised to find that he’d done a remarkably good job of it. He had also fixed up the curtain poles for her and when she’d asked him early that morning if he shouldn’t be going to the warehouse, he had told her that Jimmy would have to manage on his own until they had put everything back to rights. He was clearly trying his best to make things as comfortable as he could for her and Charlotte and so she decided that she would try harder from now on too.

Half an hour later, as Charlotte crawled about the flagstones, Amber stood back to admire the flowers she had arranged in a jug. They took pride of place in the centre of the table and as she leant towards them to sniff their perfume she smiled.

Later, as they ate lunch, Barnaby said tentatively, ‘I was wondering if you might wish to invite your family to the wedding.’

Amber shook her head. ‘No, I’ll just write to me mother an’ tell her about it after it’s over. As you said, it’s only a marriage of convenience so there’s no need to make any fuss.’