He smiled. ‘How very businesslike you sound.’

‘I don’t mean to be. But you said it yourself, the tenancy agreement runs out on Waterside Cottage next month, at the end of July, so how would you feel about moving in with me?’

‘What about Martha and Willow; what will they think?’ He knew that it troubled Naomi that his presence in her life had caused something of a rift between her and her daughters. Perhaps not a rift exactly, but certainly an upsetting of the family apple cart. He couldn’t help but wonder if they might regard him differently if they knew what their father had really been like. Wouldn’t they then welcome someone who would love and cherish their mother? Naomi had been adamant that she never wanted Martha and Willow to know that she had allowed Colin to do what he had, that it would undermine the very foundations of their family. But was it possible they knew anyway, if only on a subconscious level?

‘I told you before,’ Naomi said, breaking into his thought, ‘I’m not going to let my daughters determine how I live my life. I nearly gave you up because I was worried about losing their love, which has always been the most precious of things for me, but if they love me and want the best for me, they’ll come round to the fact that you and I love each other. And,’ she went on after a slight pause, ‘that we plan to marry.’

Staring up at the bulging moon in the inky-black sky that was studded with diamond-bright stars, Ellis hoped that was true. ‘I suppose if I did move in with you,’ he said, ‘it would give you the opportunity to put me on a probationary trial.’

She rested her head against his shoulder. ‘That works both ways, you know. You might decide that you couldn’t possibly put up with my irritating habits.’

‘Only one way to flush them out on both sides, in that case,’ he said with a laugh.

‘But how do you feel about living in the home that I shared with Colin?’

‘I’m not going to ask you to sell it to pander to my finer feelings. I know how much you love Anchor House, how it’s a part of you.’

‘You haven’t really answered my question, have you?’

‘I’m very adaptable,’ he said with a shrug. ‘I’ve lived in many houses over the years; admittedly some I’ve liked better than others, but at the risk of sounding hopelessly corny, I’d be happy to be with you in an old caravan with a leaky roof.’

‘Lord, let’s hope it never comes to that!’

‘I don’t know,’ he said, ‘a caravan and the freedom to up sticks and go wherever we feel like going does have a certain appeal to it, don’t you think?’

‘I think that’s called running away,’ she said with a small laugh. ‘But you know, I would never have had you down as such an old romantic.’