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extremely vocal on the subject whenever his jibes had been overheard, leaping to her defence
unreservedly, so at least she knew she wasn’t imagining it.
    Holly sighed. It wasn’t just the comments about how she looked; it was everything she did these days. Milo somehow managed to know exactly how to play her, yet always pulling back just
before he crossed that line, leaving her uncertain and confused.
    The travel mug of coffee that he had lovingly pressed into her hand with a gentle kiss as she’d left just now was a case in point.
    He was an expert at sowing just enough seeds of doubt, just enough to unsettle her, before abruptly changing tack – sometimes she honestly thought she might be going mad.
    If it weren’t for the boys . . . Holly shook the disloyal thought away. She’d made the decision to try again and she was damned if she was going to give up without giving this her
very best shot. She wasn’t going to let her own insecurities ruin her family. So she might need to make a few compromises; it had to be worth it for her boys to grow up in a secure family
unit. Didn’t it?
    ‘Hello there, Dr Graham!’ called out Marion Gains from across the narrow street, bustling towards them with unstoppable purpose and jerking Holly from her reflections. ‘How are
you settling in?’
    Holly smiled despite herself. She couldn’t help liking Marion and her kindly interest in every living soul in the town, which spoke more for her maternal nurturing side than for any
malicious gossip. As the manager of the little supermarket in town, Marion was basically Larkford’s all-seeing-eye. She knew about pregnancies, diets, minor ailments and visiting relatives
before anyone else, simply based on her skilled evaluation of your shopping basket. Who needed market research when you had a Marion?
    Marion gave the twins an adoring smile and couldn’t resist ruffling Tom’s hair – she already knew better than to try that with Ben. A few moments of small talk and Marion was
off again, heading down the road with the energy and intensity of a woman on a mission.
    Larkford was a funny little town in many ways, but Holly had no regrets in moving here, even taking into account the proximity of her formidable mother-in-law. And if ever Jean’s
ever-looming presence became too much, Holly had only to walk through the streets of the town to know she’d made the right decision.
    Every time she came out of her narrow residential road, whether on foot or by car, Holly would pause for a moment. From this mini vantage point, the hills outlined her view in every direction
and the woodland seemed to creep down into the edges of the meadows that surrounded the town like a moat.
    Holly took a deep breath, slowly drawing in the crisp morning air, and allowed herself just a moment to indulge. Here, Holly had always felt that her little family would be safe, cocooned from
the realities of the outside world. Her own childhood had been rather different and she certainly tried to be selective with her memories, for the most part.
    The happier years, before her father, a policeman, had been promoted to the Public Protection Unit, she allowed through. Everything after his death in the line of duty was sharply, brutally,
edited, leaving her only with the disturbing echoes, whenever she was confronted with a decision of her own.
    It had been an easy choice in the end, between the practice in central Bristol, or moving to a nice quiet backwater like Larkford.
    She turned into the Market Place just as the sun burst through the heavy blanket of cloud, unwittingly mirroring Holly’s state of mind. Just as she never allowed herself to think about her
father’s passing, Holly mentally filed all thoughts of Milo’s thoughtless comments, and how rubbish he’d managed to make her feel, into the Pandora’s Box in her mind. In
Holly’s world, it seemed, nobody had the capacity to hurt her more than the ones she loved the most. She rubbed at her