‘Right,’ Maggie managed to say, thinking fast. Obviously she couldn’t deny Amelia this meeting, but she could smooth the way for her, make it as easy as possible, she supposed, because Amelia was sure to be shy when it came to the crunch. And who wouldn’t be? She could invite Will over for Sunday lunch or something, back when they were in Reading, she thought grudgingly. Lay on some cordial conversation along with the food, take tentative steps towards a new relationship. If that wasn’t too ‘intense’ for Will of course, she thought, bristling. If that wasn’t too ‘needy’ of Amelia too, for wanting to see her own dad for the first time in years. ‘Okay,’ she said, trying to sound supportive. ‘Perhaps we could—’

‘I was thinking, maybe tomorrow?’

Maggie gulped. ‘Tomorrow?’ Her voice was almost a shriek. ‘Well, I don’t think—’

‘Yeah, if you don’t mind dropping me at Falmouth train station and sorting out the ticket,’ Amelia went on doggedly. ‘He said I could stay over anyway, meet his family . . .’

This was all happening way too fast, the conversation streaking from her grasp as if it were greased. Maggie couldn’t keep up. Meet his family? Amelia was his family – or was there some other wife and kids she didn’t even know about? Did Amelia have a half-brother or sister? Oh God. She wasn’t ready for this. All these years she’d waited for Will to reach out to his daughter and yet she wasn’t remotely prepared for the actuality.

‘Hold on a minute,’ she said, her hands flying up into stop signs. Or the symbol of surrender, whichever way you chose to look at it. ‘What do you mean, “stay over”? I thought he was living in London.’

‘He’s in Devon now, though. He inherited his mum’s house or something. My gran, I guess.’

Maggie’s throat was tightening with every new insult. Amelia’s gran was Maggie’s own mum, thank you very much – the woman who had shown her granddaughter boundless love over the years, in the form of knitted garments, a massive collection of charity-shop and eBay Lego sets, bedtime stories, extra sneaked pocket money, babysitting and, more recently, a shared love of Strictly, book recommendations and baking sessions. That was Amelia’s gran.