She drank some more of her tea, took a bite of biscuit and switched her thoughts back to yesterday, in particular to when everybody had gone, and Ellis was helping her with the clearing up. They had planned for him to stay the night with her, but she’d suddenly had a change of heart and told him that it had been an exhausting day and if he didn’t mind, she’d prefer to be alone. What she didn’t say was that she needed time on her own to think. Time to convince herself that she was doing the right thing, that she hadn’t rushed into things with Ellis.

If he had been disappointed by her request, he hadn’t shown it. He’d kissed her goodnight and said that he understood. But did he? And was he right when he said that Martha and Willow just needed to adjust to the idea of him?

Or would there be, as she feared, too great a price to pay in loving Ellis? But hadn’t she paid enough already? Had she made the sacrifice she had all those years ago only now to risk losing what she held most dear, her children’s love?

For the greater part of her adult life she had hidden her real emotions beneath an impenetrable layer of calm acceptance that enabled her to keep the ship – her family – on an even keel. How fitting that Anchor House was their home, a place that was safely tethered to weather the storms of everyday family life. Perhaps it made her sound too pliant, but was that such a bad thing, to be the one who ensured Anchor House was their safe harbour, their one true constant?

It still dismayed Naomi that Martha had been so overbearingly adamant that the time had come for her to sell the family home. Of course she accepted quite readily that one day she would be too old to manage such a large house on her own, but that was far off in the future, and besides, who said she would live the rest of her life alone? But then just like her father had been, Martha was a great planner; she liked to have every i dotted and every t crossed, all eventualities covered. But life was not like that, and as that old saying went, while mankind planned, God laughed.

She dunked the last quarter of biscuit into her tea, then popped it into her mouth, thinking that there were myriad moments that changed or defined a life. Some were definitely more significant than others.

For her, the day of Geraldine and Brian’s wedding would forever stand out as the one that would come to define her as a wife and mother for ever afterwards. Although it could be argued that it was Colin confessing that he’d slept with his secretary that was really the moment that defined Naomi’s role in their marriage.

While the shock of his confession had torn the ground from beneath her, it was later that she wondered at his need to confess. He claimed it was because he needed to clear his conscience, that he couldn’t live with the lie. Which was all very well, but had he not stopped to think of the consequences? What if she had said his confession had destroyed all that she valued in their relationship and she could no longer remain married to him? Or had he calculated the risk involved and assumed that her capacity for forgiveness would mitigate his crime?