‘Sevenoaks is fine, a bit suburban maybe. The thing is –’ Nell realized she hadn’t even admitted this to herself – ‘I was feeling at a bit of a loose end once I’d stopped working at the surgery, maybe even a bit lonely.’

‘Oh, Mum.’ Willow slipped her arm round Nell, and Nell, practical, efficient Nell, had to fight back tears. She hadn’t meant to make Willow feel guilty. ‘Why don’t you get in touch more? We’d love to see you.’

‘I often want to, but you seem to be . . .’ She hesitated, realizing she had to tread gently here.

‘. . . At Marigold’s rather a lot?’ Willow supplied. ‘Ollie says the same, and she’s his mum! She does rather take over your life. The thing is, she can’t bear to be alone, ever! Ollie says it’s because she was quite a wow when she was young, in all the gossip columns, and she can’t accept being on the sidelines because she isn’t young any more.’

‘That sounds very astute of Ollie. Especially about his own mother.’

‘Maybe I should be a bit more astute about you.’

Nell took the plunge. She didn’t get many chances these days. ‘I know you’re still angry because of what I did, screwing up the family, just being selfish and stupid. But believe me, I’ve paid too.’

‘Mum, that was years ago!’ Willow shook her head. ‘I just thought you weren’t really interested, that you didn’t want to be a grandma. I mean, you do look very young. Younger than Marigold, actually, even though she spends more on beauty products than Kim Kardashian!’

Nell felt laughter and tears bubble up at the same time. ‘Darling, I don’t care whether I look a hundred – well, maybe not a hundred. I’d love to be a grandma!’

‘Then we’ll have to see what we can do,’ Willow grinned. ‘Wrestle Naomi from She Who Must Be Obeyed and remind her there are two grannies in this family!’ She looked round again. ‘You do have a talent for this, you know. I can’t wait to put it all on Insta. We need to find you a project at home. Unless you’re intending to stay in Greece permanently? With what’s happening with the EU, I wouldn’t blame you.’

‘Maybe I’ll do a blog or vlog or whatever its name is, and call it The Other Granny. I bet that would hit a nerve!’

‘Absolutely! My friends are always talking about the rivalry between the grannies, checking up on Instagram to see what the other one’s doing with the grandchildren and whether it’s more exciting than with them! Worse than sibling rivalry, apparently.’ Both of them laughed. ‘And where did all this interior design savvy come from? I always thought you were a fifty shades of taupe person.’

‘To be honest, most of the ideas were Penny’s.’