It was not the relaxed way she wanted her children to meet Ellis, but it did serve as an icebreaker. So with plasters applied and drinks poured, and formal introductions now superfluous, they sat down around the table. It was then that Naomi commented on Rick not being with Willow. ‘I thought he was looking forward to a day by the sea,’ she said, ‘a chance to get out of London.’

‘He … erm … he changed his mind at the last minute,’ said Willow, her gaze sliding towards her sister.

‘What Willow means is that he thought it best that it was just the three of us today,’ said Martha.

‘Really?’ said Naomi. ‘Why?’ She could guess exactly why but felt a disagreeable need to hear her eldest daughter explain the reason why Rick’s presence had been vetoed.

‘This is a family occasion, isn’t it?’ Martha said. ‘After all, it’s not every day we’re invited to meet our mother’s new boyfriend for the first time, is it?’

‘Indeed not,’ said Naomi mildly, ‘and I can promise you I do not intend to put you girls through the ordeal on a regular basis.’

‘It’s not an ordeal, Mum,’ said Willow. ‘Far from it.’

Ellis smiled at Willow. ‘I’m delighted to hear that,’ he said. ‘I just hope I can put your minds at rest and assure you that my intentions towards your mother are strictly honourable, as old-fashioned as that might sound.’

‘How very disappointing,’ Naomi said with an abrupt laugh, and then immediately regretted her inappropriate joke when she saw the shocked expression on Martha’s face. Oh dear, she thought with a heavy heart when she excused herself to go and check on lunch, this was going to be even more of an uphill struggle than she’d anticipated. How on earth would she ever win Martha round?

Willow was always going to be more amenable to accepting somebody new into their midst, but Martha, so single-minded in whatever she thought or did, was a much harder proposition. It was that single-minded streak of hers that was both a strength and a weakness. Colin had been the same. By sticking resolutely to one belief, it left no room to accommodate either a change of heart, or the fact that one was wrong.

She had only been in the kitchen a short while, and was opening the oven to see if the olive and rosemary flatbreads she’d made were ready to take out, when Tom came in.

‘Anything I can do to help?’ he asked.

‘Fancied escaping, did you?’ she said. ‘Or is this a previously agreed plan between the three of you?’

‘Plan?’ he repeated.

‘Yes, the girls cross-examine Ellis on his own while you interrogate me?’

The snappish tone of her question plainly took Tom by surprise and she immediately apologised. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘being on edge about you meeting Ellis is making me tetchy.’

‘I think we’re all a bit on edge.’

‘Quite. But is it so bad for the three of you to imagine that I might not want to spend the rest of my life alone? That being with Ellis actually makes me happy?’