‘Don’t give her another thought. She’ll be quite happy here bossing Ellis around. Shall I come today? I could be there in time to take you for afternoon tea, if you like. Somewhere decadently smart as a treat for us both. What do you say?’

The fact that her mother was suggesting she dash up to London straight away made Willow realise that she must be worried about her. ‘That’s a lovely idea, Mum, but it’s my last day at work. I’m going in at two o’clock and then when the shift is over, a group of us is going for farewell drinks.’

‘Shall I come tomorrow then? Seeing as you won’t have work to go to? Or better still, why don’t you come down here for a few days? Have a mini-break with us.’

‘Without Rick?’

‘Why not? It would be lovely for me to have some special time with you. It’s ages since we’ve been able to do that, just the two of us. Ellis will happily amuse himself. What do you think?’

The thought of spending time down at Anchor House, and before motherhood swallowed her up whole, was wonderfully tempting. To lie in bed in her old bedroom listening to the seagulls and the waves lapping at the shore would be just perfect. To go for a long walk and feel the autumn wind in her hair. To shelter in the sand dunes, and just have space to think. But what would Rick think about her spending time away from him? He’d hate it.

‘I’ll check with Rick and get back to you,’ she said, already accepting she wouldn’t be going anywhere, that it wouldn’t be worth upsetting Rick. He’d been so touchy lately, the slightest thing setting him off. He said it was because he was under a lot of pressure at work and that she didn’t understand the first thing about how tough it was for businesses to survive, that the effects of the pandemic on the global economy were still with them and would be for a long time yet, blah, blah, and then some more blah, blah. It wasn’t her fault any of that happened, but the way he banged on anyone would think it was. He had kicked off again last night because he’d insisted that she needed to make a will. She’d made the mistake of laughing and saying there was no hurry, she’d get around to it one day.

‘That’s so typically irresponsible of you, isn’t it?’ he’d said, ‘always putting something important off.’

‘I’ll do it,’ she’d said.

‘You should do it soon.’

‘Yes,’ she’d said, only half listening.

‘After all,’ he’d gone on, ‘you have that trust your father left you, and those shares.’

Rarely did she think about the shares Dad had left her, and Martha as well, probably because she was determined to follow Tom’s advice and keep them until the stock market picked up. But because she wasn’t paying attention to Rick when he was badgering her about making a will, he had suddenly grown angry and gone off on one and shouted at her and thrown the TV remote so hard against the wall it had smashed.