‘I know I should have mentioned Jonathan as soon as I arrived,’ I blurted out.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘you should.’

‘But to begin with,’ I carried on, ‘talking about him didn’t seem relevant. I was simply in town to spend some time with Dolly before I moved. It didn’t feel necessary to explain the intricacies of my private life.’

Saying those few words out loud made me feel uncomfortable. When I arrived, I was on the verge of becoming engaged and beginning a new life on the other side of the world. Surely, I should have been so full of it, it would have been impossible to shut me up. The fact that I had kept it all to myself, and not even consciously, said a lot about how I had really felt about my relationship with Jonathan.

‘Did Dolly play any part in it?’ Beamish asked.

‘Yes,’ I nodded, after I had thought about it for a second or two, ‘yes, she did. She could see things in my relationship that I couldn’t and she thought that, by bringing me to Wynbridge and giving me some space, I would be able to see those things for myself.’

At least that part of her strategy had worked.

‘She also thought,’ I bravely carried on, ‘that if you and I became friends then I would rediscover what close friendships, relationships between adults should really be. An equal footing as opposed to the scales always being weighted in one person’s favour.’

Beamish nodded.

‘And her plan worked,’ I carried on. ‘My friendship with you did make me see everything that was wrong with my relationship with Jonathan. You landed in my life, just in the nick of time.’

‘But not before Jonathan assaulted you,’ said Beamish. ‘Not before he physically hurt you.’

‘I know it’s probably hard to believe,’ I explained, ‘but the mental scars have run far deeper than the fading marks. Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. He’s gone. Finally, and I’m not living my life by his rules anymore.’

Had everything else not been such a disaster, I daresay it would have felt quite liberating.

‘And what about us?’ Beamish asked, turning to look at me properly for the first time. ‘Did Dolly factor any feelings deeper than friendship developing between us into her plan?’

Now it was my turn to stare ahead.

‘No,’ I whispered. ‘As far as I know, there was no contingency strategy to cope with deeper feelings. Dolly simply hoped that we would become wonderful friends.’

‘But friends talk to each other, Hattie,’ Beamish pointed out, sounding angry. ‘Friends confide in one another. I told you about my parents and you even explained a little about yours. Surely that should have been the moment you mentioned Jonathan.’

He was right, that would have been the perfect time to come clean. Tears sprang to my eyes and I tried to blink them away.