Caroline tried to be excited and happy, but worries crept in. What if Josh wanted them to move to New York? How would she feel about that? And what about school for Teddy? He was only six, but soon he’d need a good education.

Josh phoned almost daily—Desiree’s penthouse was amazing. He was working with the best team ever. She should see the incredible things he was designing. She’d be so proud of him.

Then the phone calls became much less frequent.

“So haven’t you finished the tour wardrobe yet?” she asked when she telephoned him for once. “Isn’t it about time you came home?”

“Ah, here’s the thing.” He coughed, something he always did when nervous. “You see, Desiree wants me on the tour with her. In case something isn’t working or needs changing. It’s only another month, but it’s really worth it.”

Caroline knew, even before she saw the picture in the tabloids, that something had gone really wrong. Desiree Duncan with her new “main squeeze,” fashion designer Josh Grant, enjoying a Miami nightclub. Then the inevitable phone call.

“I’m sorry, Cara, but I’m not coming back. I have come to realize that I was trapped in a marriage I never really wanted in the first place. I have always cared about you, but you never made me feel . . . the way she does. I feel alive for the first time in years. Alive and hopeful and doing what I want to do. Don’t worry. I’ll do my share, make sure Teddy is paid for and goes to a good school. I’ll be a good dad. I love him.”

After that came the letter from an American lawyer. Divorce conditions. Joint custody of Teddy. Alimony and child support. Josh was being reasonable and fair, the lawyer said. He understood that Teddy’s schooling should not be disturbed, so he’d confine visits to America to the school holidays. He’d have Teddy for the summer, and for Christmas and Easter.

Caroline was furious. She got all the hard work, the day-to-day slog, and Josh would be there when Teddy opened his presents, went to the beach, hunted Easter eggs. But then, she had to agree that his schooling was important and should not be interrupted. At least he’d get a good private school education now. She’d make sure Josh paid for that.

She went about her daily life mechanically, trying not to feel anything, being strong for her son’s sake. On weekends, she took Teddy and fled to her place of refuge, the house shared by her grandmother and great-aunt. It had been Caroline’s only real home since her own parents divorced when she was ten. Her archaeologist mother had always been off somewhere exotic, flitting in and out of Caroline’s life like a butterfly, bringing her presents from distant lands before disappearing again. Her father had promptly remarried, and the new wife had, in quick succession, produced the sons he had always dreamed of. So Caroline had spent her holidays from boarding school with Granny and Great-Aunt Lettie, whose real name, never used by the family, was Juliet. There she had always found peace, love and acceptance. She found it now.