It’s—so peaceful.’ A gull shrieked above her and she laughed as she caught Ryan’s eye. ‘Well, not peaceful, perhaps, but the noises are different. Good noises. No car horns and revving engines. And everything is slow. I’m looking forward to just being still.’ Realising that she probably sounded ridiculous, Jenna shrugged awkwardly. ‘In London everything moves so fast. You get swept along with it so that sometimes you can’t even take a breath—I hate the pace of it.’

‘That’s because you’re so old, Mum.’ Lexi fiddled with her phone. ‘London was exciting. And our house was lovely.’

‘London was noisy and smelly and our house was far too big for the two of us.’ It was what she’d told herself when she’d realised that their house had been sold and she and Lexi no longer had a home. It was the only way she had coped.

Pushing away that thought, Jenna stepped into the hallway of the cottage. They had a home now, and she loved it. Light reflected off the polished wooden floor, and through an open door she could see a bright, cheerful kitchen. ‘We lived right next to an underground station and every three minutes the house shook.’

‘Yeah, it was so cool.’ Lexi tossed her hair away from her face, her eyes still on her mobile phone. ‘I was never more than ten minutes from the shops.’

But Jenna wasn’t thinking about shopping. It seemed far away. And so did Clive and the whole sordid mess she’d left behind. ‘This place is wonderful. We can have our breakfast outside on that little table.’ She turned to look at the pretty garden, eyes slightly misty, imagination running free. ‘Lexi, you can go for a swim, or a run on the beach.’

How could this be a mistake?

Maybe she hadn’t done the wrong thing. They could be happy here—she felt it.

Lexi shot her a look of incredulous disbelief and checked her mobile phone. ‘No signal again. How do people function around here?’

‘You can usually get a signal if you walk up the hill towards the castle.’ Ryan lifted their suitcases into the hallway and Lexi gave an exaggerated sigh.

‘Fine. If the only place I can use my phone is at the top of a hill then I’m going to have to walk up it!’ Making a frustrated sound in her throat, she stalked away.

Jenna opened her mouth to say be careful and then closed it again, leaving the words unspoken. She knew from experience that too much maternal anxiety was counterproductive.

But the guilt was back, eating away at her like acid, corroding her insides. She might have fallen in love with the cottage, but she knew this wasn’t what Lexi wanted.