Gripping the cases, she determinedly began to walk down the platform, noting that the damaged buildings and old signal box had been removed, and there was no longer a Nissen hut for the left luggage, but a large car park and bus stop had been constructed in their place. Peggy had written to tell her the station was no longer manned, and she could only feel relief that she wouldn’t bump into Stan and have to answer his numerous questions, for there was only one person she wanted to talk to, and that was Peggy.

However, she missed not seeing him in his customary place on the platform, for he’d been her saviour on that night four years ago when she’d arrived here, bruised and battered with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. And now she was back, once again in need of comfort, but this time her bruises and scars were hidden deep inside her, and she doubted they’d ever fully heal. Glancing towards the stationmaster’s cottage, she quickly turned away to walk down the quiet Sunday afternoon High Street, her high-heeled shoes tapping on the pavement.

She reached Camden Road, but to avoid having to pass the Anchor where she might be seen, she went down to the promenade and sat in one of the renovated Victorian shelters. Dumping the cases at her feet, she pulled up her collar against the chilly wind and stared out over the grey waters of the English Channel.

All the while she’d been in Canada the hours had felt like days, the weeks like months, but in reality it hadn’t been very long at all, and nothing much had changed here. But she had changed, the inner steel she’d always relied upon coming to the fore again and proving to her that whatever fate threw at her, she was a survivor. And yet it had taken huge courage to find that strength of purpose when her world had collapsed to leave her floundering in a sea of pain, the likes of which she’d never experienced before – and hoped to God she never would again.

Ruby watched the sea glisten in the hazy sun, not yet ready to face Peggy and Cordelia, even though it was to them that she’d returned in search of love and warmth and unfailing support. This was home, and Peggy’s Beach View the one place in the world where she might be able to begin again and look to the future – a future that until now had seemed so very bleak. She lit a cigarette and allowed the memories to return, of that moment when her life had begun to disintegrate.

The snow had been falling steadily ever since she’d kissed Mike goodbye and waved him off with his father as they’d set out for the logging camp. She’d known she wouldn’t see him until the spring thaw, and the silent white world had seemed to close in around her as the tree branches bowed beneath the weight of the snow, and icicles hung from the eaves of the log house.