‘She does sound quite bitter. Do you think it’s some kind of depression? She’s had to go through a lot, and without any real support network around her.’

‘She’s got me.’

‘Of course she has. Oh, don’t get all defensive. But a woman of her age needs … a life of her own. Friends. Fun. It’s not really healthy is it, staying in all the time, not meeting anyone, relying on a teenaged boy …’

‘Boy?’

‘Okay, man. I meant man!’

‘Right. Well, I only came up to say hello. I really need to get some sleep in today if I’m going to be anywhere near fit for work tonight. When are you going to see Miss Parker?’

‘About three. She said to call in for afternoon tea. If I don’t appear tomorrow you’ll know I’ve come down with food poisoning.’

‘Harsh, Miss Harris. Very harsh. Don’t look a gift horse in the gob, as my dad always says. Free cakes. What’s not to like? And if they’re any good you just might have found the way to get your garden started. Oh, and don’t forget to take photos. If I don’t get to eat any of the baking, I can at least see what I’ve missed!’

Prue sat for a while after he’d gone. Aaron might only be young but he always seemed to know what to say to cheer her up, to make her feel good about herself, to make her laugh. If anything at all had come out of her escape to London, it was meeting him, making a true friend. Of course, she would take photos. He knew she would. Because she always did. Of everything. Photography was what she did, what she lived and breathed for. It had been her hobby, her job, her passion for a long time now. She could give up village life. She could give up Joe Barton, although to be more accurate it was he who had given her up, but even so … The one thing she could never imagine being without was photography.

She fetched her laptop and switched it on. She had a few hours to kill before her cake date at number 3. Paving slabs and lavender plants and the future of the garden could wait. There was something else she needed to do before she chickened out again. And that was to start planning her own future.

She couldn’t waste any more of her life snapping prize vegetables and hanging around taking pictures at weddings, let alone dreaming about her own. It was time she took this thing seriously, developed her skills, her knowledge, her art.

She brought Google up on the screen, then started to type into the search box. Photography courses. She only hesitated for a moment before adding one more word. London.

Chapter 25

MADI

Madi and Tom sat down in Prue’s kitchen with Donny and a couple of his mates after school on Wednesday, and started to make plans for the stage show.