‘It’s important.’ Her mum closed her eyes, sighed, and with a voice barely audible, added, ‘That’s all you need to know.’

Amelia had fought down tears in all the time they’d been talking, but now they burned against her eyes.

‘I’m not afraid of death.’ It was as though her mum sensed her daughter’s tears hiding there. ‘I’m so, so tired,’ she said.

*

Rosamund didn’t come to the funeral, but Neil was there, sitting at the back of the crematorium, as Amelia, Thomas and their dad took turns reading poems.

Amelia sat at the front with her family. William hadn’t been able to take time off work to be with her, and once again it hurt that he hadn’t supported her.

As they listened to the celebrant talking about her mum’s life, Amelia glanced over her shoulder at the door, hoping it would open and Lark, like a miracle, would appear in her flowing black dress, and lace-up boots. She even hoped Jackson would turn up, with his perfect features and sandy-blond hair, but neither came.

Outside the crematorium she gripped her dad’s arm as they looked at the flowers.

‘I can’t believe she’s gone,’ he said. He was wearing his long black coat, despite the warm weather, and perspiration coated his forehead. He hadn’t cried during the service, but his eyes filled with tears now.

‘We’ll get through this, Dad,’ she said, squeezing his arm, moving in closer. But, truth was, she didn’t know how they would.

She kept thinking she saw Lark that day, as the sun glinted on surrounding trees. Her presence was so strong, like an angel sent to take their mum.

Later, back at the family home, she laid out the sandwiches she’d ordered from Waitrose, and tipped crisps into bowls. She put French Fancies – Mum’s favourites – onto her best china plates. Everyone knocked back cheap white wine, as though it might help with the awkwardness of it all.

Amelia’s grandparents had died a long time ago, and her mum had no brothers and sisters. She’d lost touch with most of her friends when she moved in with Jackson, but there was still a good turnout – mostly Robert’s colleagues from the museum, and a few friends from the am-dram society.

Following an argument with Maddie, Amelia left the gathering, and after a brief hug with her dad, she climbed the stairs to bed, burying herself under the duvet, and crying until she fell into a restless sleep.

*

After the funeral, Amelia returned to London to attempt to get her life back on track. Her dad and Thomas insisted they would be OK without her. But the truth was, she wasn’t sure she would be OK without them.

Chapter 42

Present Day

Amelia