The timing had to be just right, she decided. If the four of them were going to be firm friends, as she hoped, then she needed to take things one step at a time. Yes, she and Melissa might be able to strike up a relationship easily enough, but what about Charles and Ray? Things there were a little different. There was more at stake, for a start. They might share blood but they hadn’t shared anything else and there might be some unwelcome awkwardness between them. After all, even though they were brothers, they were also strangers. On top of that, Ray could be harbouring some resentment because Charles’s life had turned out so well when his had been less successful.

Yes, thought Grace, a friendship there might be trickier to forge.

That said, there must be some kind of bond between the two men, Grace reasoned. Charles had bought the house for Ray and you didn’t do that kind of thing for someone you had no feelings for. What Grace didn’t want to do, though, was to push too hard and spoil things before their relationship had had a chance to be rekindled. Softly, softly – that was the way.

With this in mind, Grace decided that the best approach would be to work on her friendship with Melissa first, then the two of them could mount a pincer movement on their men, each woman working on her own husband until they came round to the idea. She would call round at the house again. She could repeat the trip whilst the children were at school and pretend that she was just passing. Melissa wouldn’t know any different, as Grace hadn’t told her where she lived. Maybe she could take a small gift for Leah? No. That didn’t sit with her ‘just passing’ story. There would be plenty of time for presents once their relationship was on a firmer footing. And Grace knew that it would be, in time. She could tell.

It was a much warmer day when she set out for Whitley Bay the second time. The winter had stepped aside and now spring was in charge, fully robed in her showy finery. Skittish lambs chased each other in the fields and the roadside banks were dotted with daffodils rather than snow.