‘I’m not sure I like oysters, Leo.’

‘It’s a figure of speech, Gilly!’

He sounded quite snappy, thought Gilly, and they weren’t even married yet. ‘I’m incredibly flattered, Leo,’ she said, ‘but I don’t think we want the same things out of life. So, no thank you, I don’t want to marry you.’

He seemed stunned. ‘Gilly! I haven’t asked a woman to marry me since my first wife! I don’t think you’ve had time to think this through.’ He got up. ‘I’m not going to take no for an answer. I’m going to let you think about it.’

‘Really, I won’t change my mind—’

‘Just think about it! Think about what you’re turning down!’

Then he got up, pushed his chair back so it made an unpleasant grating sound on the floor and marched out to the front door, nearly tripping over Ulysses as he went. When the door had shut behind him – nearly but not quite a slam – Gilly heard something from the dining room. She went in.

Her bed and breakfast guests were looking at her. ‘If I’m not mistaken,’ said the woman, ‘he’s the man who tried to swindle us out of quite a lot of money with some “sure-fire” scheme or other.’

‘The man’s a shower,’ said her husband. ‘An absolute shower. You did absolutely the right thing getting shot of him.’

‘Well now,’ said the woman, much more gently. ‘We’ve had a really lovely stay but we must get on. We have an appointment in town shortly.’

Gilly was confused. She was convinced by now that Leo was on some sort of commission – that if he persuaded her to sell Fairacres, Martin and Cressida would reward him. But now he appeared to want to live in the house?

It was possible he’d realised she wasn’t selling and so felt marrying her, living in her nice house, would give him some status he felt he lacked. She chided herself for being so wet that she hadn’t made it absolutely clear how she felt about it all earlier. But her ex-husband had made her fearful of confrontation. Thank goodness she’d done it now.

After the couple left, Gilly suddenly felt tired and was clearing up at half her usual pace when William called.

‘How are you, darling?’ he said when she answered the phone.

She laughed and discovered she was smiling. ‘I’m well. How are you?’

‘Missing you.’

‘That’s nice. I’m missing you, too.’ She thought of her bedroom, her bed still unmade, and how lovely it would have been to go back there with William.

‘Um – you’ll probably be a bit annoyed but I couldn’t help investigating that Leo Simmons. I did it the other day, after I saw him with you at Helena’s show.’