‘How are you settling in? It must be around six months you’ve been here now,’ asked Mary.

‘Five. To be honest, at first I thought I’d never settle. It’s been incredibly hard to adjust. I think I underestimated how much. But now… well, I’ve never been happier.’ She gave Mary a broad smile.

‘That’s super news. I’m so pleased for you.’

‘It wasn’t just acclimatising, although that’s been hard enough, but getting used to my new circumstances.’ Evie pulled off her swimming cap and ran her fingers through her hair. ‘I’d forgotten what it was like to be part of a family. Years of living and working as a paid companion to a kind but crotchety old lady had narrowed my horizons – not to mention living in a tiny village in Hampshire where nothing ever happened. And now I’ve been catapulted into a whole new world, as well as learning to be a wife and a mother.’

‘You and Jasmine seem to get along famously.’

Evie turned her gaze to watch her step-daughter as she jumped, knees bent under her, into the water, emulating the dive-bombing of the boys in the pool. The eight-year-old emerged, coughing and spluttering and rubbing her eyes. But before Evie had a chance to check that she was all right, Jasmine was clambering out of the pool and getting ready to repeat the manoeuvre. ‘Just look at her! She’s in her element. And I have you and the school to thank for that.’

‘No. You have to credit yourself. You’ve given Jasmine the love and care she’d obviously been craving since her mother died.’

Evie hesitated, before deciding if she couldn’t confide in Mary she had no one to confide in at all. ‘I sometimes wonder if she was craving it even while her mother was alive.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘Just something Jasmine once said to me. She told me her mother was mean.’

‘Mean? In what way?’

‘I don’t know. It was clearly upsetting her so I didn’t press her.’

‘Can’t you ask your husband?’

Evie gave a little involuntary snort. ‘In a word, no.’ Seeing the dismay on Mary’s face, she decided to show the same trust in her friend as Mary had shown to her when she’d recounted the story of her fiancé. ‘What I mean is – that’s been part of the difficulty of adjusting. Doug and I were virtual strangers when we married. We’d met only once. Years ago. He asked me to marry him by letter, completely out of the blue. And it was a very short letter at that.’ She looked down, embarrassed, and kicked her legs back and forth lightly against the parapet. ‘Things are good between us now… I think… but at first… it was jolly hard. I assumed he found it hard to accept me after the loss of his wife and… well…he’s not the kind of man who talks a lot.’

Mary laughed. ‘Your typical Englishman. You don’t need to tell me. I’ve seen enough of them here. The English public school system has a lot to answer for.’