She probably hadn’t achieved enough to get chosen for such an opportunity, but oh, how she’d love to be part of that. Why shouldn’t she have a try?

She hesitated, wondering whether she was wasting her time even considering it. Then she got angry at herself for thinking like that. Darren had really eroded her self-confidence. The people who’d bought her pieces had been very complimentary about their whimsical or quirky quality, especially her little metal animals.

She studied the advert again, looking at every word, trying to work out exactly what they wanted. Then she switched on her desktop computer. The old clichés her grandma had often used bounced around her mind.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

No time like the present.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

After all, it’d only cost her an hour or so to draw up a short piece about herself and select a couple of photos.

In fact, it cost her three hours, because she agonised over every word, and after that she had a hard time choosing the pieces whose photos she’d send.

In the end she chose the little animal made from scraps of metal, the idea for which had marked a turning point in her rehabilitation. Because it was so important to her, she’d not sold that one. And with it, she sent a bas-relief abstract made in the days before her marriage. It consisted mainly of cog wheels of all sizes, looking almost as if they were moving in groups across the canvas. Someone had told her it made your eyes follow the swirls.

It was bigger than her usual pieces and designed to hang on a wall. She’d stored it in the industrial unit with the rest of her furniture, and hadn’t attempted to unpack it.

Darren had hated it and said it was a childish mishmash and she should be spending her time on more useful things, like decorating their house. After one of their rows, he’d thrown it away without telling her. But she’d seen it lying on the street verge and retrieved it secretly, leaving it with her parents for safety until recently.

And even after that unkindness, she’d stayed with him, desperately trying anything she could think of to hold their marriage together. Oh, what a coward she’d been! But she’d never expected her marriage to fail, never, because she wanted so much to have a relationship as happy as that of her parents!

She reread her application one final time, closed her eyes for a moment to make a fervent wish, then sent off the email.

Even if the people starting up this Arts and Crafts Village never replied, she’d had the courage to apply, and that soothed some raw place inside her. Just a little.

She was, she felt, getting there, wherever ‘there’ was, moving forward one slow step at a time into a new and more fulfilling life.

Elise studied the houses for sale online, then looked at the newspaper, which she didn’t usually buy, but this time she’d had a fancy to read one in the old-fashioned way instead of online.