She held Fergus’s eyes for a moment and he lifted a hand and she lifted hers in reply. The three of them had been too close for a permanent rift, but they both needed time to heal. How ironic, she thought, that when we both desperately need the comfort of the other, it is the one thing impossible to give. As she turned, she saw Laura standing very still watching her, her expression unfathomable.

Laura was standing talking to a small group of subdued officers and their wives, while keeping an eye on Saffie and Nikki. Where had Fleur got to? Was she wrong to feel irritated by her daughter? She knew she was. For heaven’s sake, they had only buried David two weeks ago. But these were his friends, their friends and Fleur should not just disappear and pretend this was not happening. She wanted Fleur to be brave and show her friends what she was made of, not leave her and Peter and the colonel and his wife to it.

People had come to honour David and to show solidarity. Fleur should be down here, dignified and present.

Laura felt anxious by her daughter’s crippling lethargy. Peter had always made life easy for Fleur, spoilt her. She had a nagging premonition that would not leave her, and guilt, because she knew her sympathy and love should be maternal and unconditional.

Laura was devastated by what had happened and shocked to the core by David’s death. She and Peter could not have had a better friend or son-in-law. She had considered Fleur too young and immature for David and she had been proved wrong. Fleur and David had had a wonderfully happy marriage.

But now Fleur had to be courageous because she had two children and their lives must be put above her own. Her own distress should be secondary to their security, even if this meant Fleur had to feign a stability and bravery she did not feel. Nikki and Saffie needed something to hang on to. A future that was not too frightening without their father.

This was just not happening. Fleur seemed completely detached from all that was going on, especially with the twins. She was going through the motions of caring for them but she was distant and unreachable most of the time. The twins panicked and clung and then turned reluctantly to their grandparents.

Laura watched Fergus pushing the twins on an old swing. He was making them smile, despite his own obvious misery. Children could not live with unremitting sadness, it weighed them down, suffocated their innate sense of life.

What were they going to do with Fleur after the holiday in Malaya? Peter had to return to Northern Ireland. It was a worrying time for him out there. Laura felt torn between a husband she wanted to be with and her daughter, who suddenly found herself a widow at barely twenty-five and who needed her far more than Peter at the moment.