A memory of fear touched Gilly like a ghost. He’d been a bully and frightened her. The expression ‘coercive control’ hadn’t been in use at the time but that was exactly what she had suffered throughout her marriage. She would give in to keep the peace, until she stopped giving in and that was when he began to get really threatening.

‘You have no power to stop me doing anything,’ said Gilly. ‘You bullied me all through our marriage and I put up with it for the sake of our children. But they’re grown up now and your influence over me is finished! I have met a man who makes me happy, who loves me and who is kind. We are going to live together and there’s not a thing you can do about it.’

‘Oh, really? I think you’ll find I can do a lot—’

She gave him a look which she hoped made him feel like dirt under her shoe. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me,’ she said, picking up her handbag. ‘I’ll just pop to the loo.’

Once she was in the hall, Gilly opened the front door and let herself out.

She walked down the drive and past her car. She knew she wasn’t fit to drive although she still felt very clear-headed. When she was out on the road she found her phone. She sent Cressida a quick text thanking her and explaining she had to leave unexpectedly. Then she went to ‘Favourites’ and called a taxi. Because she was a good customer they said they’d come immediately.

However, she knew it would take them a good fifteen minutes to reach her and she began to feel anxious in case anyone came out of the house to look for her. She walked along the road and round a bend so she would be out of sight.

While she was walking, adrenalin making her heart race, Gilly’s mind focused on the failure of their marriage. In Sebastian’s opinion, men were the ones to be adored, to be pandered to, appeased, obeyed. Gilly blamed his mother for making him believe this. She’d been a strong woman who never pandered to anyone, but she’d never liked Gilly, never thought she was good enough for her son. Gilly had been perversely pleased that they’d stayed married until after Sebastian’s mother had died, not giving her the chance to say, ‘I told you so.’

Martin shared some of his father’s faults although Cressida would never be bullied, and back there she had been a little bit on Gilly’s side. Although Gilly realised now she and Martin had set her up with Leo, to try to get him to persuade her to sell her house. However, she doubted if they’d intended that Leo should ask her to marry him in the bizarre way he had.