And so was she, Holly had said, and she’d thought it very often since, too. There was nothing more that she could have had. Nothing more that she wanted. She was so content that she’d never really questioned the decisions she’d made, until now. How could they have been wrong, when they had brought her so much happiness?

‘Are you OK, Mum?’ Daphne asked, sitting down beside her. It was unusual for neither of them to select the armchair closest to the fire, with its cushions and its solitary comfort – unusual but nice, to be sitting next to each other like this.

‘I was just thinking that my part in this story is all a little false.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that perhaps I made no difference at all,’ Holly said. ‘Perhaps I am just an irrelevant old woman who was once in the right place at the right time. Or the wrong place at the wrong time.’

‘To me it looks like you made a huge difference, Mum.’

Holly smiled but she didn’t agree – there were plenty more women ready to do what she had done. They would all have done it in their own way, and their own stories would have played out, and sooner or later someone would have snapped after losing a child and someone would have found Freida’s files and the risks would have come out and the world would be exactly where it was. Though she wouldn’t have had Daphne, if she’d made different choices – she would have had a different family. So perhaps her choices were pretty good. She certainly wouldn’t change a single one of them now.

FullLife would be paying compensation, but Rosie and Kaz had already decided they wanted to donate all of that to charity. Maybe to the care homes, Rosie had said. She’d had a big talk with Eva. And FullLife were changing their advertising policy too; from now on every advert would carry details of the risks. It was something.

‘Freida’s lighthouse was brutal,’ Holly said.

‘However did she run a lighthouse all on her own?’

‘She didn’t. It was fully automated and managed from Edinburgh, apparently.’

Daphne smiled. ‘So she liked the idea of running a lighthouse rather than the reality?’

‘Maybe so,’ Holly said. ‘Mostly I think she wanted to be near the waves.’

They lapsed into silence for a moment, both of them enjoying it. Aarav was coming up at the weekend, with Drew and the kids, so the peace and quiet would be replaced by the noise of family soon enough.

‘Would you have done the same, in my place?’ Holly asked her daughter. ‘Would you have volunteered to be the first woman to use the pouch?’

‘I hope so,’ Daphne said. ‘I think you were brave.’