Dearest Best Daughter in the Entire World, she’d write. I hope you are having the holiday of a lifetime. Don’t forget me, will you? Your adoring mother xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx one of them read. The kisses covered two pages.

Maxie had often been reminded of something they’d said to Jeannie all those years before, when they first proposed the annual godmother holidays. That Jeannie was so lucky to have a daughter, that perhaps they might not ever be so lucky. That Eliza might be the closest thing they’d ever have to a daughter. It had come true.

Maxie would have gone down the IVF route if she had met Hazel ten years earlier, when she was in her forties, but it was too late now. She knew Olivia would love to have had a daughter of her own too. That hadn’t proved possible for her and Edgar. Eliza had filled such a big space in their lives. What would they have done without her all these years? What would Eliza have done without them?

She heard the sound of a car. Hazel had returned. Maxie stepped outside, smiling, glad that she was no longer alone with her thoughts.

Hazel didn’t smile back. ‘I checked my emails.’

‘You’ve been nominated for a BAFTA?’

Hazel shook her head and told her what the email said. It wasn’t good news.

Chapter Nineteen

CHAPTER NINETEEN

By Friday night, Eliza had realised something surprising. She was enjoying working with Celine.

If she’d been back with Gillian, trying to satisfy a client as tricky as Celine, she’d have been starting early, finishing very late. Making long lists. Spending any free time worrying. Not here. It was unpaid work, yes, but she was making progress. The two rooms were definitely getting tidier. She was standing up to Celine more and more. Yesterday, Celine had even begrudgingly thanked her.

Her life felt different in other ways too. There was no going home to a quiet, solitary apartment. No searching for films or books to fill her hours. She didn’t seem to have spare hours. Sullivan messaged constantly. Whenever Alex or Rory visited Celine’s suite to deliver room service, they stayed to chat. Maxie sent a photo each day of the Highland walks she and Hazel were doing.

Rose had noticed a change in her when they spoke that morning. Eliza almost sounded relaxed, she said. It was doing her good to be away. They swapped stories, Eliza about Celine, Rose about Harry and their kids. They talked about Eliza’s godmothers. How every day she was thinking of new questions to ask them.

Each night Eliza met Olivia for a drink, followed by dinner. Tonight, rather than eat in the hotel restaurant, they were dining in an Italian trattoria three streets away. Olivia had arranged to meet her there at eight, after she’d been to visit Edgar.