“I think she was in love with someone else by then, but wouldn’t tell me who it was. After university we went our separate ways for several years. We kept in touch sporadically, more due to my effort than hers. I followed her career from afar and was astonished when she married Ted Mason. How can you know someone so well, then feel like they’re a stranger? Ted was much older and more experienced than me. I wondered if he was the other guy...”

“I’ve met Ted. I don’t think he’s the love of Essie’s life.”

He smiled, as if grateful. “Essie and I got back in touch after her divorce. We became friends again. I hoped in time we might, ah...” He sighed to himself. “But she married Hank Milligan next. And I met Harriet.”

His voice slipped when he said his wife’s name.

“I told you the truth, about working for Essie,” he added. “She contacted me out of the blue, a few years ago. She asked me to be her solicitor and I agreed. We had a purely business relationship. I was one of the few people she trusted. It was disconcerting to see how much she’d changed. But there were still flashes of Elsbeth...” He smiled to himself.

Something fluttered in Liv’s stomach. “You were still in love with her?”

He opened his mouth to deny it before letting his shoulders fall. “Yes,” he said. “I was.”

Liv felt like a tight flower bud had opened, revealing its petals.

“I’m getting divorced,” Anthony said. “It’s something Harriet and I have been discussing for some time. I supported her through her father’s heart scare, and hoped we might get back together. But her mind is made up. I tried to hide my feelings for Essie and obviously did a poor job. Harriet called it an emotional affair. She’s probably right.”

Liv thought for a while. Lots of things made more sense now, Anthony’s evasiveness when she first met him, and how he wanted to say goodbye to Essie on his own.

Matilda said Essie drank too much and yearned for the only man she ever loved. Had the author been full of regret about how she treated Anthony? Was he out of reach because he was married to Harriet? Perhaps Liv had finally found Essie’s mystery love, even if the solicitor wasn’t a perfect template for Georgia Rory’s hero.

“I’m glad Essie was with someone she loved at the end,” she said.

Anthony placed his hand on hers. It felt warm and protective, two people connected in a moment rather than anything romantic. And Liv welcomed it. At that moment in time, she felt closer to Anthony than she did to Jake.