Kerry nodded, unable to form any words. It was always like this until she walked out into the lights, to the sound of the music. Then something took her over. Something came down over her mind and wiped away the nervousness, the fear, leaving a feeling of peace and a desire just to make the audience enjoy themselves, enjoy her. Tonight, though, it was more acute than it had ever been. She had travelled a long way to do this show and she was glad, in a funny sort of way, to be doing it now after all the events of the last year. It seemed right somehow. Right and fitting.

It was Briony who had told her to go, who had made her realise that they were getting too old to nurse grudges for any length of time. They were old and wise enough, surely, to chase their own ghosts?

Which was what Kerry was going to do tonight.

The ghost was Evander Dorsey, and after all those years, all the trouble with him and through him, she was going to sing in his club in America. CBS Television was out there waiting for her, she was going to be seen from coast to coast. ‘Kerry Cavanagh the Legend’ they called her these days. The twins had given her career a bigger boost than she had ever dreamed possible. After Daniel’s trial her records had been recut and she had been inundated with offers to sing, star in shows, be interviewed. It had frightened her. But Briony, dear Briony, and Bernadette had told her, ‘Use whatever you can, girl. If you’re making a bigger comeback as a result of Boysie’s death and Daniel’s misfortune, then at least we can all be glad that some good came from it all.’ So she had taken up the offers, she had gone on the talk shows and the music shows, she had toured the country and sang in just about every auditorium there was in Britain.

Now she was on New York’s east side, in Evander’s Jazz Club. There was a packed audience waiting for her, and Evander himself was going to introduce her.

In the week since she had arrived they had regained a little more of their old footing. It was inevitable when they shared a common bond, their child.

Kerry heard her cue and swallowed nervously. Her throat was dry, her eyes felt hot.

Liselle kissed her on the cheek and smiled widely. ‘Go on, Mum, get out there and show them what a Cavanagh can do!’

Kerry heard Evander’s voice, that deep brown voice that she had loved so much all those years ago. And as she listened, her ears tuned to it, her mind chased down the years until she could picture the handsome lover he had been.