‘I haven’t got a clue,’ she replied. ‘I have to get the flashbacks and the panics under control first. Then I can go home and get back to work, but I don’t know how long that will take. Plus, just to put a cherry on the top of the whole stinking pie, I’m now officially homeless because my ex-boyfriend has kicked me out of my flat. Technically his flat, to be fair, but still.’

Pip was surprised at how refreshing it was to express out loud what she was really thinking, instead of having to sugar-coat everything. When she spoke to her parents, she gilded every word. They were worried enough as it was, without her adding to their concerns by being overly candid.

‘Are they bad, the panics?’ Jez asked. He was looking directly at her, as if he were trying to judge the truth of her answer by what her eyes told him.

‘Bad enough,’ she said. ‘It’s the unpredictability that makes it so hard. I can go days and days without anything and then, bam, I’m right back where I started.’

Jez nodded as if he understood exactly. ‘My mate was in Iraq. He’s the same. It doesn’t matter what we say to him, about how it was a war, and that he was there to do a job, that shit happens. He just can’t deal with the guilt. They say it just takes time. Not sure how helpful that is, though.’

She shrugged, but then suddenly she didn’t want to think about herself and her problems any more.

‘Less of my doom and gloom,’ she said, trying to raise her face into a smile. ‘How about you? What have you been up to?’

‘Not nearly as much as you!’ he replied wryly. ‘I’m working on the farm, obviously. I love it, working outside. I thought for a bit that I should have gone to uni like everyone else, but I don’t think that now. And I’m as good as hitched.’

Waves of something that might have been jealousy washed over Pip. She didn’t want Jez or the life that he could offer, but the thought that he didn’t want her either snapped at her heart like a terrier.

‘Do I know her?’ she asked, although she really hoped that she didn’t.

Jez shook his head. ‘Teresa? I don’t think so. She manages one of the big hotels in town. She’s from Ipswich originally.’

‘And have you set a date?’ Pip asked lightly, hoping that her expression wasn’t giving away her odd sense of disappointment.