‘That is completely ridiculous,’ her mother snapped.

‘It’s hurtful actually,’ Elle said, quietly now. ‘I just wish you could be happy with who I am.’

Her mother opened her mouth, but Elle shook her head and turned away to pick up her car keys. ‘I’ll come back later and finish packing. I have to get to work.’

She walked down the front path hoping she didn’t trip over due to the blur of tears that had filled her eyes.

Why couldn’t her mother see her the way Gran had? Her mum was right about one thing, though: life for Elle was going to be different around here now she didn’t have Gran to turn to, and the thought scared her more than she cared to admit.

She loves you, darling. She really does. She doesn’t mean to come across so bluntly. She’s just worried about you, Gran said.

‘Which is ironic, considering I’m living right on their doorstep where they can see everything that’s happening, and not hundreds of kilometres away going to uni and doing God knows what, like the others.’

You mother’s always been a worrier. She likes security. You know how her parents were, Gran said gently.

Caroline’s family were very different to the Kinnairds. Indeed, Elle’s other set of grandparents were about as opposite to Gran and Pa as it was possible to get. Granddad Ashcroft had never been able to hold down a job while Caroline was growing up, leaving Granny Ashcroft to be creatively thrifty stretching the little income they had to keep her four children fed and clothed in their government-subsidised house.

Elle knew that her mum had always felt like a square peg in a round hole in her family—which was ironic considering she couldn’t seem to understand Elle’s predicament. All Caroline had wanted to do was go to university and make something of her life, and she’d done it by working hard and getting a student loan to put herself through her studies. Elle was extremely proud but a little daunted by her mother’s drive.

Elle didn’t need a Bachelor of Psychology to see the issues that had come from her mother’s upbringing, and how they influenced the way she saw the world. In her mother’s eyes, the success of her children was a guarantee they would be able to provide for their own families the way she had provided for hers, so their Christmases wouldn’t be filled with second-hand toys or randomly picked gifts from charity organisations.

It always amazed Elle that for a smart woman, her mother could be very obtuse when it came to understanding people. It didn’t make it any less hurtful, though, when she continued to wield that sword of righteousness over Elle’s head.