‘My goodness yes,’ said Isobel. ‘That’s a real handful. All the same, I envy her having you to call on. We’re a bit short of grannies in our family. I wouldn’t be looking after Rory now if we still had a granny. He spent a lot of his early life with my parents when my sister was abroad.’

Janet MacDonald gave Isobel a shrewd look. She thought the younger woman was looking tired and strained – not her usual bubbling self at all. ‘I was sorry to hear about your father’s death after Christmas,’ she said. ‘It must have hit you very hard coming less than a year after you lost your mother.’

‘Thank you – I must say I do miss them both dreadfully. It seemed bad enough when they first moved to France after my father retired and gave up the house in Edinburgh where I was born. I hated that, but at least they were always popping over to see us, and we used to go there too. Amy and Edward adored our visits to them. It was a real shock when my father collapsed and died so suddenly. We’d always thought he was indestructible and there’d never been any mention of heart trouble before as far as we knew. He did find it very hard to cope without Mum. They’d always been so close, and it always seemed as though she relied on him completely, so it was a surprise to find he was quite so lost without her. He’d been so strong and wonderful all through her illness – and so decisive about everything all his life. It just shows you can never really know the inside of any marriage except your own. Everyone keeps telling me it’s a blessing he’s gone too, but it’s hard to see it like that sometimes.’

‘Other folks are wonderfully good at telling you how you should feel, but only you can really know,’ agreed Janet comfortingly. ‘He was a fine man, your dad. There’s many round here have reason to be grateful to him. No one’s troubles were too small or insignificant for him to take on. My family thought of him as something of a hero.’ Isobel and Lorna’s father had been a much loved and respected family solicitor with something of a Robin Hood attitude to his wealthy and less wealthy clients.