She is no nearer finding a place to live than when she first arrived, although she is becoming familiar with the countryside. The anxiety makes her heart beat fast. With Sam gone, and Max back in his role of attentive husband, who will hold up the mirror for her? How will she be sure of her existence? She remembers the mirror in the loft of her childhood home, and remembers the joy and relief with which she greeted her reflection. She was real, she existed, and she was no longer alone in the big quiet house with her indifferent, unpredictable mother. She laughed and danced and talked, leaning forward to kiss the cold lips of the little girl who lived in the mirror and convinced Cara that she had a friend. How old was she when her mother discovered her? She was shocked by what she called Cara’s ‘showing off’, angry at her vanity, and the mirror was covered up. It was not long after that she’d been sent away to school.

Cara turns away from the chest of drawers and sits on the edge of the bed. Can any other child have been so happy to go away to boarding school? The children – even the bullies – convinced her of her reality. None of the hardships, the deprivations, could quench the happiness of being with friends who loved her, teachers who encouraged her. During the holidays Max was down from university and then, when he joined the navy and their mother died, Hermione came into her life.

How relieved their father was, how delighted, that Cara embraced his mistress so wholeheartedly. Later, she wondered whether her father’s relationship with Hermione was the result of her mother’s cold, withdrawn detachment, the drinking bouts and crying jags, or whether she was the reason for it. Either way, she, Cara, blossomed into a happy teenager under Hermione’s warmth and guidance. Max, now engaged to Judith, was relieved, though not entirely comfortable with Hermione. It was becoming clear that Judith was irritated by his sense of responsibility towards his little sister and she was keen to plan their wedding and move to a married quarter in Gosport. With a distinct lack of enthusiasm she agreed that Cara should be a bridesmaid.

‘Judith’s just like her mother,’ Cara said privately to Hermione after the wedding. ‘Rather bossy and not much fun.’

‘Hmm,’ said Hermione. ‘Max can’t say he hasn’t been warned then. Like mother, like daughter.’

Hermione took Cara to boutiques, to the theatre, to exhibitions. She visited her at school – ‘She’s a kind of cousin,’ Cara told her friends – and when Hermione met Philip she welcomed him into the warm circle of friendship.