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‘Nice fella,’ Dad said, reaching for a chocolate biscuit. ‘Very interesting to chat to. Seemed really keen to know more about the village, but then Shona lumped herself down next to him and that was that. Totally hogged the conversation.’

He chuckled as I gasped in indignation. ‘I did no such thing!’

‘Yes, you did! Do you think I didn’t see you, going all goo-goo eyed over him?’ He winked at Aunt Polly. ‘Think she fancied him, Pol. What do you think to that?’

Aunt Polly looked shocked. ‘Really, Shona? You like that man?’

‘Not in that way!’ I protested. ‘I mean, he seems very nice…’

‘And not bad looking, eh?’ Dad said, nudging me. ‘First time I’ve seen you blush in the presence of any man since that turnip head you married.’

‘Do you mind? Luke’s the father of my children!’

‘Still a turnip head,’ he said comfortably. ‘Luckily, the girls take after our side of the family. What do you say, Pol?’

‘I don’t know what to say!’ Aunt Polly looked a bit taken aback by the direction of this conversation, and no wonder. ‘So, do you like him?’

‘I told you, not in that way!’ I helped myself to yet another chocolate biscuit and avoided her gaze. I hoped Dad was joking, but even if he was, there was more truth to his remarks than he realised, and I had an awful feeling Aunt Polly would be able to pick up on that. How embarrassing!

‘He’s a good-looking fella,’ Dad persisted. ‘You could do worse. You did do worse! And he’s a teacher, and head of department, so he’d be a lot more reliable financially than turnip head.’

‘Dad, will you stop calling Luke turnip head!’ I was quite relieved that my annoyance was masking my embarrassment now. ‘And don’t ever let me hear you say anything like that about him in front of Christie or Pippa.’

‘Have I ever?’ he demanded. ‘I’m the soul of discretion, me. Mind, I’ve heard them girls say worse about him. Just because they don’t talk like that in front of you doesn’t mean?—’

‘All right, Dad,’ I said heavily. ‘I get the picture.’

My daughters had no relationship with their dad these days.

Believe me, I would never have stopped either Christie or Pippa from seeing him, and for a short while after the divorce, they did visit him.

But the visits became sporadic, and in the end, they’d trickled away to nothing, and neither Luke nor the girls made any move to change that situation.

I supposed, after everything that had happened, they felt no real loyalty to him.

‘This Max,’ Aunt Polly said suddenly, and I suppressed a sigh. Why was she so interested in him all of a sudden? ‘You liked him, too, Jimmy?’

‘Like I said, he seemed a decent fella,’ Dad told her. ‘We had quite a good chat. Bless him, he lost his wife six years ago, so we had a bit in common. I think he feels a bit lost without her, you know. I told him, he’s always welcome at Starling Cottage if he ever fancies a chat.’

‘But you barely know him!’ Aunt Polly said.

I looked at her, surprised by the tone of her voice. She sounded as if she really didn’t want Dad mixing with Max.

‘Well…’ Dad was clearly surprised, too. ‘We don’t know anyone at first, do we, Pol?

We have to get to know them. That’s the point.

Like I said, he seems a bit lost, and I thought it would be nice for him to have someone to chat to, who’d been through the same experience. ’ He frowned suddenly. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Why wouldn’t I be?’ Aunt Polly gave a laugh that sounded too brittle, and Dad and I exchanged puzzled glances.

‘You know what? I think I’m going to head home and have an early night.

Staying at Percy’s has worn me out, what him staying up all hours of the night to chat, and the couple he lives with watching late-night films. I’m ready for a bit of peace and quiet, so I’ll see you tomorrow, eh? ’

‘Er, sure. If that’s what you want.’ Dad got to his feet, but she waved at him to sit down again.

‘I’ll see myself out. Let me know when you want to have a go at that eggless chocolate cake, Shona. And the syrup loaf, too. I can give you some tips. Night, lovelies.’

With that, she was gone, without even giving me a chance to say goodnight.

‘What on earth was that about?’ I asked, perplexed. ‘Was it my imagination, or did Aunt Polly seem put out that you’d invited Max here?’

Dad rubbed his forehead. ‘Well, I asked him in front of her and she never mentioned anything at the time. Mind, she didn’t think much of the idea when I joked you fancied him either, did she?’

I heaved an inward sigh of relief. So he had been joking? Thank goodness for that. But he was right all the same. Aunt Polly hadn’t liked it.

‘Dad,’ I said hesitantly, ‘I hate to say this, but you don’t think she’s… prejudiced?’

‘Polly? She’s not like that, girl. You know that.’

‘But she died in the 1940s,’ I pointed out. ‘Britain had been at war with Germany for years, and there’d only been peace for a couple of years when she?—’

‘Died,’ Dad said quickly. He never liked to mention how she’d died. It was still too much for him to think about and I didn’t blame him. I never liked to think about it either, and I knew even less about what had happened than he did.

‘Yes,’ I said softly, ‘when she died. Germans would still have been seen as the enemy. Maybe seeing Max has brought back memories of that time. All they suffered. Uncle Charlie. I mean, how would you forgive the people who were responsible for killing the love of your life?’

‘That was decades ago,’ Dad said briskly.

‘We were at war. People killed and people died. On both sides. Polly’s not daft and she’s had a long, long time to move on.

Maybe it’s just him she didn’t like? Maybe something about him rubbed her up the wrong way?

We all meet people we instinctively dislike, don’t we?

Often for no good reason. I’m sure it’s nothing, love. Don’t worry.’

‘I’m not worried,’ I said lightly. ‘It’s nothing to me either way, is it?’

But I was a bit worried, because Aunt Polly hadn’t seemed like herself at all this evening, and considering she’d been missing for a week prior to today, I couldn’t help feeling there was more to all this than we realised.

Was it really something to do with Max? Or did Aunt Polly have something else on her mind that was worrying her?