‘Happy memories?’ I ask, sitting beside her.

‘Yes,’ Ellen says. ‘Actually, yes. I didn’t know if I could say that, after everything that happened then and since, but I was happy here.’ She turns to me. ‘You seem happy too. I just wish we knew what happened to poor Lily.’

I brace myself. I’ve practised this with Ruth, I have her blessing. But even so, every time I’ve told the story – to Adana, to Fran, to Susie, and especially to Liz – I’ve been anxious, afraid of arousing suspicion.

‘Well,’ I start, ‘I did some digging, and found out more. Not the full story, but enough. I found out that Robbie was abusive, and that Mary took Lily.’

Ellen’s jaw drops.

‘I know. Incredible. She managed to get her back to the States, and though there’s no way to trace Lily now, by all accounts she was, and is, happy.’

‘Oh my goodness!’ Ellen’s eyes fill with tears. ‘She’s alive?’

I nod.

‘So she was OK? What Gavin did – he wasn’t responsible? She didn’t … she was OK?’

‘Yes. She was OK.’ I stop short of pointing out that Gavin did lock her in a room and threaten her, even if the outcome wasn’t the tragedy Ellen feared.

‘How did you find out?’

‘I can’t really say much … but Mary had help from someone who is still alive today and doesn’t want to be discovered for what they did. I’m sure you understand the need for keeping all of this confidential, and why I can’t say who told me the truth.’

Ellen nods emphatically, though I’m sure she’d love to know more.

‘And of course, we don’t want the police going looking for Mary and Lily now, so we need to keep all of this to ourselves.’

‘Absolutely. I’m just so relieved it wasn’t Gavin,’ she says, and smiles. ‘Thank you, Joanna, for doing everything you did.’ She reaches into her bag and pulls out something. ‘I wonder if you’d like to take this.’ In her hand is a small ceramic lighthouse. ‘It doesn’t feel right for me to have it, knowing now why Gavin took it, but it would be wrong to throw it away. It should be somewhere safe, with someone else who cared about Mary and Lily’s story.’

Nodding, I take the lighthouse. ‘I’ll keep it safe in their memory, I promise.’

I make my way towards Fran who’s standing under a pear tree, chatting to Susie.

‘We were just saying, you did a good job with your detective work,’ Fran says. ‘I can’t believe what was happening to Mary right under our noses. That poor woman. And that awful man. God, I remember Zara fancying him. I feel sick thinking about it now.’

‘Has Zara been in to see Ruth since?’ I ask, wondering if Ruth is keeping up appearances.

‘She has, and she told her that Lily is alive. I suppose we’ll never know if it was really Ruth’s house in that photo. If it was, do you think she knew Mary somehow got Lily away from Robbie?’