Jo thought about it for a moment. ‘Maybe she’s ashamed or embarrassed. Maybe they didn’t have any money and she doesn’t want to admit it to us in case we think less of her. We’re not short of money and Ben was privately educated. Perhaps she just feels a little bit inferior and doesn’t want to be reminded of her past.’

‘Hmm. Maybe.’ Peter stole a glance at Jo. ‘Do you think Ben seems happy?’

Jo could tell that it was a loaded question. Clearly Peter didn’t. ‘He seems a bit tentative. Like he’s walking on eggshells. But then, she is a new mother and her moods are probably a bit unpredictable. I’m sure I was the same when I had Emma.’

Peter reached across and put his hand on Jo’s thigh. ‘Actually, you weren’t. You took motherhood completely in your stride. And you didn’t have anyone to help you. It made me love you even more.’

Jo smiled. ‘Thank you. Oh, but it was so wonderful to see Elodie, wasn’t it? She’s the image of Bella.’

‘She certainly is,’ Peter said with a sigh.

‘She’s absolutely beautiful. I’m just relieved that we got to see her. There was a time there when I wondered if we ever would.’

‘Me too. It was a huge overreaction.’

Jo shrugged. She didn’t really care why Bella had finally decided to stop treating them like pariahs. She was just glad that she had.

Chapter Eleven

The profile of her face was so achingly familiar and yet so strangely out of context that it caused Ben’s stomach to flip. She was sitting at a table across the restaurant, having lunch with another woman who Ben recognized as a TV presenter.

As if she could feel him watching her, Charlotte turned and met his gaze. She frowned very slightly, as he’d seen her do so many times in the past when she was concentrating on something, before her face broke into a wide smile of recognition. She said something to the woman she was with, before standing up and walking over to Ben’s table.

She hesitated as she reached him and he stood, the table between them acting as a barricade to any kind of embrace. In the end, he reached out and touched her arm. ‘Hello, Charlotte.’

He thought the smile she gave him in return contained more than a hint of sadness about it. ‘Hello, Ben. This is a nice surprise. What brings you to this neck of the woods?’

‘Change of direction, in lots of different ways.’ Ben motioned for her to sit down. ‘Take a seat, my guest has been held up.’

Charlotte hesitated, glancing back towards her own lunch companion, who was chatting happily on her mobile phone. ‘OK, but I’d better not be long.’ She sat down and smiled at him again. ‘You look well.’

‘So do you.’ Ben thought she had lost too much weight and that it had given her a gaunt appearance but decided against saying so. ‘How are you?