When they finally left the shop an hour later, Edie felt a little dazed and, against all her expectations, genuinely excited about the prospect of wearing an actual wedding dress. Gilly’s face hadn’t lost its beaming smile since the moment Edie had put it on and walked out of the fitting room with her stomach inexplicably full of butterflies.

‘Ezra is going to completely lose it when you walk in wearing that,’ she said, with total confidence. ‘He’s going to cry, I know it.’

‘He’s not going to cry, don’t be ridiculous,’ Edie scoffed.

Secretly, though, she was rather taken with the idea. Ezra had always seemed to her to be an entirely untouchable rock, and the thought that anything she did might actually be able to move him seemed implausible in the extreme.

‘I should look for something to wear too,’ Gilly said. ‘Can we have a quick look in the charity shops while we’re here?’

‘Of course,’ Edie said, ‘but wouldn’t you like something new to wear as well? Since it is, as you keep pointing out, a special occasion.’

Edie watched as Gilly chewed her lip. She could almost see her calculating funds before the girl said, rather reluctantly, ‘Nah. Better not. I’m sure I can find something that’ll look all right without costing an arm and a leg.’

‘Well, it’s up to you, of course,’ Edie said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a brown envelope. ‘You must wear whatever you like. But just in case there’s something else holding you back, this is for you.’

‘What’s this?’ Gilly asked, taking the envelope with a frown and opening it. Inside was a sheaf of notes. She immediately thrust it back towards Edie. ‘Oh no – I’m not taking your money, Edie, I’ve told you that before!’

‘It’s not my money,’ Edie said. ‘It’s your money. It’s everything you’ve given me in “rent” since you started living with me. I told you I’d rather you saved it, but since you insisted, I saved it for you instead. And if you’re fool enough to still try to give it back, I swear I’ll burn it, so you may as well accept it. That’s not to say you need to spend it on clothes for the wedding, mind – it’s yours, for you to spend on whatever you want.’

Gilly stared at the envelope in her hands for a moment, perhaps weighing choices between necessities. Edie hoped that one day, the young woman in front of her wouldn’t have to make the decision between having one thing she needed and doing without the rest.

‘I want to go and visit my grandma’s grave,’ Gilly said suddenly. ‘They wouldn’t let me go to the funeral. They said I was too young. And then none of the foster homes I was in would take me to visit. It was always too far away and too much trouble for them. But now’ – she held up the envelope – ‘I can go myself. And I can take her flowers. She really loved flowers.’