‘I understand now I’m older that what you see isn’t her, it’s not Lizzie, it’s the shadow of her. And I know because that’s been me for the last year or so. People are talking about me too, like they do her.’

He slowly formed his words. ‘Did you . . . did you lose someone, Merrin? And don’t feel you have to tell me. I don’t want to pry.’

She leant into him, liking the support he offered as they ambled along the winding street lined with dainty cottages where lamplight shone from the windows and potted plants and hanging baskets graced the frontages. ‘Have you ever owned something so beautiful that you can’t quite believe it’s yours and then through no fault of your own it gets broken, and you can’t bear to look at it any more, because it’s smashed and yet it used to be perfect, and even to glimpse it makes your heart break?’ She looked up, almost having forgotten she was talking to him and not herself.

‘I haven’t, Merrin. I’ve never owned anything like that.’

‘Well, I did.’ She swallowed. ‘I owned a lovely life in the most beautiful place you can imagine and I fell in love and got dressed up in a big, frothy wedding dress, and my dad covered the old cart with flowers and all the village came out to wave and then . . . and then it was all gone. All of it. And here I am.’

And just like that her tears had gathered and, suddenly weary, she rested her head on his shoulder.

‘Well, for what it’s worth, not that I would wish you a moment of sadness, I’m glad that you went through that because it brought you here, brought you to me.’

The two stopped and leant on the high stone wall of a garden. Merrin looked up at the man who she had trusted with her story. ‘You are very good-looking.’

‘Yes, I am,’ he stated, and again she felt laughter erupt from her mouth without hesitation or self-consciousness. He moved in as if to kiss her and she pulled her head back.

‘I want you to understand, Miguel, that I’ve been badly hurt and it’s left a mark on me, changed me. And you are really kind and funny and good-looking.’

‘Yes, I think we’ve established that.’ He smiled and held both her hands in his.

‘I’m sad that you will only ever know this new-shaped Merrin Mercy Kellow because I used to be different, better.’

Words raced around her head that felt at once presumptive and weighted. I’m wary of any long-term commitment, suspicious of words of affection and I will never be able to love as freely as I did before because part of my heart has been boarded up, cut off, sealed . . .