‘I just wish you’d been able to see that I was doing what was best for me. I’m not cut out to be an academic like everyone else in the family, Mum. I’m just not. I’m sorry that I’m a disappointment to you, but that’s just how it is.’ Elle shrugged.

‘You have never been a disappointment to me,’ her mother said, causing Elle to look over at her when she heard her urgent tone. ‘I think I was always just a little bit jealous of you, if you want to know the truth.’

‘What?’

‘You are talented, Elle. You always have been. You’re like a ray of sunshine. I often watched you in the park when you were little—running up to other children and dragging them over to me saying, “Look, Mummy, this is my new best friend.”’

Elle gave a small groan.

‘You light up a room when you walk in. There’s something very special about you, Elspeth, and I used to wish I had even a fraction of that specialness—your … I don’t even know how to describe it … your glow,’ Caroline said finally, with a slight, almost bewildered, shake of her head. ‘I don’t know where you got it from. My childhood was very different to yours, and I know that in a lot of ways, even though I thought I’d been able to move on and put it behind me, I let it become a wedge between you and me. I just wanted to make a better life for all of you. Better than I had,’ she said simply.

‘And we did. We had two parents who loved us, and a home,’ Elle said. ‘I know it was important to you that all your kids went to university and found careers, but that was your dream, Mum.’

‘You were the only child of mine who refused to stick to what I thought was the best path for you,’ Caroline said with amused tolerance. ‘It took you leaving for me to realise I’d pushed too hard and as a result pushed you away. I’m ashamed to say that I was also a little jealous of your relationship with Iona. You two were so close. I wanted us to be that way, but I didn’t know how.’

‘Oh Mum,’ Elle said, biting her lip against the sadness of her mother’s words. ‘I always loved you as much as I loved Gran.’

‘I know you did. I just always seemed to be the bad guy, though, and I didn’t know how to fix it.’

‘I’m sorry you felt like that,’ Elle said, hugging her mother tightly. She’d never really stopped to think that maybe her mum had felt left out. Caroline was always so busy and Gran had always just … been there.