‘And?’ He nodded at Becky, who had her back to us, watching the kettle as if a non-watched pot never boils, rather than the other way around.

‘She tipped tea all over herself and then hid in the bathroom until he left.’

‘Seriously, Becky? You can charm a load of obnoxious strangers into playing musical statues, and you can’t handle being in the same room as Luke Winter, the most easy-going man on earth?’ He shook his head. ‘You’ve got it bad.’

Becky handed him a mug of tea. ‘I’ve met a thousand Stephes at a hundred different events. Their flash and swagger don’t intimidate me one bit. But a decent, kind, hardworking and honest man? Luke sees straight through all that sales-pitch BS, he’s not interested. When I told him I got all As in my GCSEs he nodded politely before turning around and asking Monica Patchett if she’d like help finding her lost kitten. He’s not impressed by any of the things I’m impressive at. All he’s interested in is a person’s personality, and I’m not sure I’ve got a real one of those left. Luke Winter would want a woman of goodly character. Not one who made a living conning medical professionals into buying life-saving drugs at rip-off prices.’

‘How about one who walked away from all that?’ I suggested. ‘One who had the strength to admit that wasn’t who she wanted to be, and who sacrificed a successful career to start over with nothing?’

‘I have a lot more than nothing,’ Becky groaned. ‘The problem is I feel like I’m a nothing.’

I pulled out a chair for her to sit down on. ‘Believe me, I get it.’ Boy, did I get it. ‘But don’t insult me and Daniel by saying you’re nothing. You’re our friend, and someone we think worthy enough to partner up with in building our dream. Do you think Daniel would trust his family home to a nothing?’

‘Okay,’ she sniffed. ‘But there’s a long way between not-a-nothing and a woman Luke would consider crossing over to the Old Side for.’

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake! This isn’t Romeo and Juliet! If Luke is such a good and decent person, he won’t care about an old feud.’

‘It makes it complicated, though. Old Siders are barred from the Boatman, Luke’s local. It takes forever to detour around to his side. Let alone the constant grief from family and neighbours and everyone else. They wouldn’t even serve him in the chippy if they thought he was sharing his fish special with me. What if we wanted to get married one day? We’d have to elope to avoid it becoming a mass showdown.’

I looked to Daniel for some rationality but he just shrugged. ‘Old wounds run deep. It’s not just Old Side and New Side to them. Ziva’s father-in-law died during the strike. He was so malnourished and rundown that when flu turned into pneumonia, he couldn’t fight it off.’

‘Luke’s great-uncle had a breakdown and left his wife and kids after the Old Side burned his bakery to the ground,’ Becky added. ‘This isn’t some silly old feud to us. It’s family, and neighbours. Lives changed forever, and every single one of them for the worse.’