‘I know, I know,’ said Cindy as she placed her hand over Maggie’s. ‘The war was tough, queen, but it was years ago and there’s no reward in heaven for being a martyr, you know, it’s a load of old guff. We all only have one life, it’s here and now and oh, before you say anything back to me, because I know you are going to, you can spend this life cherishing the memories of the man you loved and lost, God love him and rest his soul…’ Cindy blessed herself with the cross and then put her hand over Maggie’s. ‘You can live every day, honouring your vows – but you do know one of those vows was “till death do us part”? And that’s just it, Maggie: death did part you.’

Cindy’s words pierced Maggie, but they worked; death had parted them. Realisation of how stupid she had been washed over her with such a force that she gasped.

‘I’ve been an idiot, haven’t I?’ She looked Cindy in the eye. ‘People didn’t think well of me for living like a hermit, did they? I did it in honour of him, but if he died for us, then the least I could do was be true to him.’ Even as she spoke the words out loud, she knew that after all this time, they sounded ridiculous. ‘They all think I’m pathetic, don’t they, think I need their sympathy? Is that what the women around here say when they sit in your chair?’

‘No, love, they don’t.’ Cindy’s voice was gentle, her eyes tender. She could sense she had got through. ‘That’s not what they say at all. Some are jealous that you have no kids to run around after, but honestly, everyone just worries about you. Do you know what I think?’ Cindy didn’t wait for an answer. ‘I think you became a war widow and you used it as a safety blanket. You don’t have to try, do you, so it’s an easy path to take. I think you dug yourself a trench that deep you didn’t know how get back out – which is why I’m that glad you’ve come out tonight.’

Why had no one else ever said what Cindy just had? Maggie wondered. And then she remembered a conversation with Maura Doherty. ‘Do you want to stay in that house every day and night, or do you need a lift out?’ she had said once and Maggie had thought at the time she’d been joking. But now Maggie knew what she’d been getting at and the answer drifted into her thoughts almost as soon as she had finished asking herself the question.