So she’d thought he was lovely and she’d sobbed all over him. What a turn-on. She headed into the bathroom to fetch her toiletries. Despite what she’d told Jake there was a mirror there, and she saw what she looked like. A nightmare.

‘Just forget it,’ she said fiercely to a pile of second-hand clothes she had no use for. ‘Your body would react to anything in pants right now. You’re needy and weepy and pathetic. So get a grip and don’t even begin to think that Jake Hunter’s seeing you as anything more than a basket case.’

She sniffed.

‘And don’t go blubbering about that as well,’ she snapped to her reflection, and headed back to the bedroom and kicked the closest cardboard box, which promptly collapsed. She stared at it as if it’d personally betrayed her-and then the phone rang.

‘Doc Nicholls?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s Combadeen Cleaners,’ a woman’s voice said. ‘We’ve been paid to clean the place you’re using up on the ridge. Cart away garbage. Give stuff to welfare. Scrub. Do whatever you want.’

‘You’ve been paid?’ she said cautiously.

‘This guy-Jake Hunter?-apparently he owns the lodge as well as your place? He said you’re moving out. If it’s okay with you, he said you do what you want, then leave the rest for us. When you’re finished, leave a key on the kitchen table. We’ll collect it tonight. We’ll clean and lock up after our-selves. But it’s only if you want us. He made that clear. We’ve been paid already but it’s up to you.’

It’s up to you. Jake understood. He was helping, but on her terms. The offer took her breath away.

For the past six months she’d been in charge. She’d been giving instructions. She’d organised.

Jake had listened to what she’d said, but he’d heard the underlying message and he’d organised around her.

The woman was giving her time to think about it. She gazed around her, at six months’ chaos of a house being used as an animal hospital.