After some discussion, it had been decided that Tara’s experience of nursing her husband in his final months offered a valid justification for supporting a fundraiser for a hospice. The same couldn’t be said of April and declaring that she was also a widow might raise too many questions. ‘Are you happy not to mention Jason?’

‘More than happy,’ April said. ‘Come on, I thought you said you were cold.’

There were drinks on arrival, and April and Tara picked up fruit juices without enthusiasm before heading over to a flipchart that displayed the seating plan. Their tickets had been amongst the last sold so it was no surprise to find they had been allocated seats on a table tucked away at the back of the room. They had been slotted in with eight other miscellaneous guests who weren’t part of the core group of supporters.

Blending in wasn’t going to be as difficult as Tara had feared, and she was about to relax when a name on the chart caught her attention. She considered not mentioning it to April, but her eagle-eyed friend had spotted it too.

‘Do you think it’s a coincidence that there’s another Malford here?’ April said, pointing to the table next to theirs.

‘It’s not as common as a Smith or a Jones, but I’m sure Nick said he didn’t have family nearby.’

‘Just because he said it, doesn’t make it true,’ said April.

As they stepped away from the seating plan, April’s body froze and Tara followed her gaze to the man they had come to see. Josh Peters was taller and wirier than he appeared in the photos on the fundraiser page. He didn’t fill out his suit in the way that Nick did, nor were his blue eyes as piercing, but they were kinder than his rival’s.

‘Can we go over and say hello?’ April asked, already on the move.

There was a tight circle of guests around Josh, all eager for his attention, but none was as determined as April. She squeezed between two gentlemen who were obliged to make way for the young lady with sharp elbows. One was about to say something to her, but Tara nudged into the gap between them.

April shot out her arm to shake Josh’s hand. ‘Hello, we’ve not met, but my friend and I think the work you’re doing here is just wonderful.’

It was Tara’s turn next. ‘I lost my husband too,’ she said, squeezing his hand.

‘Was he at the hospice?’

‘We tried to keep Mike at home for as long as we could, but unfortunately he had to be admitted into hospital. We were waiting for a bed in a hospice, but he died before we could move him.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that.’