‘Are you sure I can’t tempt you?’

‘I’m too old,’ she said. It was her turn to test him.

‘Forty-six is not old,’ he replied.

‘Older than thirty-eight,’ she said. ‘And besides, I’ve had all the exercise I need for one day.’

‘So what do you have planned?’

‘Christmas shopping,’ Faith replied. ‘From the comfort of my sitting room.’

‘Do you have a big family, or is it just your stepdaughter?’

‘I’m closest to Ella, or at least I try to be. We have what you might call a love–hate relationship. I love her and she hates her father,’ Faith explained. ‘And as for blood relatives, I have a scattering of cousins and a slightly neurotic aunt on my mother’s side who I visit dutifully every Christmas.’

‘No parents?’ he asked. ‘You never did tell me about your father.’

Faith sank back onto her pillows to stare up at the ceiling. ‘My father drank himself to death, although unfortunately for Mum, not nearly soon enough,’ she said simply.

‘What was he like as a father?’

‘A strict disciplinarian. I was expected to do as I was told, helping with the household chores and plenty of other jobs to earn my keep. He taught me how to be self-sufficient, I’ll give him that. I know how to fix a leaking tap and I’m a whiz with power tools.’

‘It sounds like he wasn’t a complete failure, despite what you say.’

That wasn’t the narrative Faith would choose and if anything, her most important life lessons had come from her mother. Faith had learnt never to depend on a man.

‘Dad was an angry drunk,’ she said, turning her head to meet Nick’s gaze. ‘My mother tolerated it because he worked hard and she thought he was a good father. He never laid a hand on me, but I saw him lash out at her often enough, mostly with words but occasionally with his fists. His temper became worse after he injured his back. He was self-employed, so there was no sick pay and he literally crawled back to his workshop with booze being his painkiller of choice. I helped as much as I could and eventually left school without a qualification to my name.’

‘But you have a good job now, I presume this story gets better.’

‘You could say that,’ Faith replied. ‘My dad died of liver failure when I was eighteen. It should have meant a new life for us, Mum especially. I went back to college, but a week after my final exams, she had a massive stroke and died. She was younger than I am now.’

Faith didn’t like the look of sympathy on Nick’s face. Her childhood had prepared her for life’s many challenges. ‘What about you? Do you have family?’