Elizabeth watched as Pru busied herself in the kitchen making them both a coffee. She placed the cups on the coffee table and sat down in the chair next to Elizabeth. ‘Thank you,’ said Elizabeth.

‘You know there’s a lot of pressure on people these days to live the perfect life,’ said Pru. ‘We are constantly fed images of how we should be living, and there’s always some expert from somewhere banging on about how to be happy and content, but you know what? Real life isn’t like that. It’s not a fantasy life from something out of an old Doris Day film.’

‘You can say that again.’ Elizabeth took a sip of her coffee.

‘You know, when I first met Max I was well and truly charmed by this good-looking Englishman. He only had to speak and I would have killed just to listen to that accent.’ She laughed. ‘It’s an American thing – we love the English accent. Anyway, we did fall in love that summer, but that wasn’t the only reason I ended up coming over to the UK and setting up home with him.’

‘No?’ Elizabeth was surprised at this candidness from her mother-in-law.

‘Not at all. You see, we made a good team on a number of fronts. The most prevailing one, which has stood the test of time, has been Conmere.’

‘Sorry, I don’t understand.’

‘Max had the house, the grounds, the land, and he had a vision, but he also had a tremendous amount of financial liability in keeping the place running. Cue a wealthy American heiress.’ She tapped her chest with her finger. ‘I had the money he needed to make a go of the place, to realise his vision of running Conmere House in the black for once. It was an arrangement that suited us, and the fact that we were rather fond of each other helped too.’

‘It was certainly a good coming together,’ said Elizabeth.

‘It wasn’t plain sailing, and as the years went by the love did peter out, but we knew we worked well together as a team. I could have left Max at any time, I knew he had a wandering eye, but I decided to stay because I knew I could gain a lot more from staying than I could from leaving.’ She placed a hand on Elizabeth’s knee. ‘The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. I know I’m biased but you have a good man in Harry and it would break my heart to see him unhappy. I know he wants to leave Conmere but if you’re here and you’re happy here then he’ll stay. It’s as simple as that.’