She looked up in the next moment, turning it over in her head. No. It was unthinkable, after all this time. Think of how it would shake up all of their lives – not just Lorna’s and Roy’s, but hers and Mack’s too. Stanley’s. Harry’s. And . . .

No, she thought again, before her thoughts could take her any further. Some things were best left undisturbed. She should leave well alone, keep the past behind her.

Shouldn’t she?

Chapter Twenty-One

‘So what are we doing for you today?’

Maggie met the eyes of the woman in the mirror. After her dream that morning, she had sat in bed and googled ‘How to change your life’ and one of the first pieces of advice that had come up was that sometimes, if you changed yourself from the outside, you then felt more able to change from the inside. Try a new hairstyle, the writer had enthused. A great new cut is the perfect way to start reinventing yourself: you’ll feel younger and more confident – it’ll put a spring in your step!

Maggie was in her forties and no longer believed in fairy stories, but what the hell – it was worth a go. Being on holiday meant you were removed from your usual boundaries and routines, she figured: you could branch out a little, try new things. Besides, she couldn’t actually remember the last time a professional had been let loose on her hair – at least six months ago, she estimated, and as a result her thick brown hair currently fell like drab, heavy curtains around her face. Not for much longer, though, because here she was at Salon Suzanne, just off the main street in Falmouth, and the hairdresser – Suzanne herself – was waiting for her to reply.

‘I’m not exactly sure,’ Maggie began apologetically. This was one of the many reasons why she was generally so reluctant to go to the hairdresser’s – because she didn’t know the terminology, she never quite knew what to ask for. She didn’t even know what suited her. Just a trim, was what she usually said, and you could always see the disappointment in the hairdresser’s face – yawn!

Today, here in Cornwall, she didn’t feel like trotting out the same old, lame old phrase, though. Today she wanted to change her life. ‘What do you think would suit me?’ she asked instead.

Suzanne’s eyes lit up at once. ‘Ooh, let’s see – well, we could take some of the weight out of your hair, perhaps bring it up to your shoulders, and add texture with a few layers.’ She a ran a hand expertly through the strands, lifting up the hair so that it reached Maggie’s shoulders to demonstrate. ‘What do you think?’