‘The thing is,’ she says, thoughtfully, ‘I felt, when you talked about it that lunchtime, that here was someone with a vocation. Like the ministry, or medicine. Teaching is so crucial, isn’t it? And you’ve either got it or you haven’t.’

He looks at her again. She stares back at him with her clear brown eyes.

‘But how do I know?’ he asks at last. ‘How can I really tell that it’s what I should be doing? I mean, I was there just for a year. It was different. Exciting. Those kids were so keen to be learning, growing. How can I be certain that it wasn’t just a one-off thing? Is it enough to take a risk on and give up the prospect of a career in the navy?’

Charley sits back in her chair as Andy brings the coffee. Sam thanks him, glad of the interruption. In a way it’s a relief that it should be brought out into the open. Once or twice with Cara he’s nearly talked about it but because she’s Max’s sister he’s felt it a bit unfair. He has a feeling that Max, with his naval past, would be disappointed if his godson were to pass up this opportunity. It’s good to be able to discuss it with this unusual woman who has no axe to grind and hardly knows him.

‘I’ve thought about it,’ he admits, stirring sugar into his coffee. ‘But I just can’t make up my mind.’

‘When do you start your naval training?’ she asks.

As she sips her coffee, holding the cup in both hands, her elbows propped on the table, Sam is aware of her personality. Her brown eyes seem to look into him, challenging him, willing him to take the chance, yet there is something else that makes him hesitate to accept that challenge.

‘In January,’ he answers. ‘A couple of months yet. It’s a tricky one, though, isn’t it? To be able to tell the substance from the shadow?’

Just for a moment her expression changes. She looks startled, as if he has wrong-footed her: as if the boot is on the other foot and he is challenging her, questioning her own life choices.

‘How do you mean?’ she asks almost defensively.

He shrugs. ‘I just think that it might be easy to be distracted by what could be something that’s almost like an ego trip,’ he says. ‘It was a terrific experience but it was in an unusual setting, in unusual conditions. Would it be sustainable for me? It’s terribly tempting but I need to know which is reality, for me. How is it possible to be sure of that?’