‘Come on, let’s go inside and get that cup of tea.’

As Marion flipped the switch on the kettle, and set about making a pot of tea – her mother was fond of calling people without teapots heathens – she made Lily tell her everything. She was silent from the beginning to the very end, but seemed neither as shocked nor surprised as Lily had been.

‘Mum, can I ask you something?’

‘Of course,’ she said, with a gentle laugh.

‘What was the last thing Daddy said to me?’

Marion bit her lip, smiled a little sadly as she always did when they talked about Lily’s father. She nodded, as if to herself, and stirred her tea before finally looking back up.

‘Every morning, before he left for the trawler, your father would look into your room. If you were asleep, which was most of the time, because honestly, Lily, as a child you slept like a log, he would sit on the side of your bed, lean in and kiss your forehead. Then he’d whisper that he loved you and that he’d be back because now you owed him one.’

‘Owed him?’

Marion smiled at her confusion. ‘Yes. He did the same thing to me, every morning too. He’d say that if he went to sea nothing would keep him from coming home for those two kisses he was owed.’ Lily gripped her mother’s hand, the fine smooth skin against the fragile bones in her fingers, tears once again pressing against the back of her eyes, as each drew strength from the other and their love of Anthony Atwell.

‘Lily, your father loved you so much, just like Blake loved Henry. But Tony died when you were so young. There was no time for the big messy arguments, no time for great disappointments.’

‘What?’ Lily replied, shocked.

‘No, I didn’t mean you, sweetheart. I meant that he never got to disappoint you. Parents, like it or not, are fallible. We make mistakes. And Blake, well, he was a lovely man and I’m sure that he very much intended to make amends with Henry, but he didn’t get the chance, and that kind of pain … it’s a hard one. It’s a deep one.’

Lily took her mother’s words into her heart. Felt them settle about her shoulders as she began to see it all through Henry’s eyes.

‘It was wonderful that Blake was there for you,’ Marion said, ‘but for Henry, that might be a bit difficult for him to process. So perhaps it’s understandable that he might not want to keep the estate.’

And suddenly Lily felt guilty, adding heat to the feelings filling her chest. ‘I … I feel like I stole something from Henry.’ Her mother looked a little confused. ‘His relationship with Blake.’

‘No, sweetheart, you didn’t. But he did give you things that you can share with Henry now.’