‘I like dark eyes,’ he’d said, ‘especially when they sparkle like yours.’

She’d clung to such remarks, and the fact that he sought her company rather than the beauties in the amateur dramatic society where they’d met. He was a professional actor, but back then his engagements were scarce and he’d been on the verge of chucking it in.

To pass the time he’d joined the amateur society, which was where they had met and quickly become attracted to each other. With her, attraction had soon become love, and she reached out to him with nothing held back. He’d responded eagerly, and the nights spent in his arms were the most joyful experiences of her life.

The play had been a triumph. She’d looked forward to the moment when he would ask her to marry him, and thought it had come when he said excitedly, ‘Guess what! The most incredible thing-’

‘Yes?’ she asked breathlessly. Out of sight, she crossed her fingers. Here it came. The proposal.

Lee was almost dancing with joy.

‘It’s so wonderful!’ he squeaked. ‘It just shows that if you wait for the right moment-’

‘And? And? And?’

‘There was an American agent in the audience.’

‘Wh…what?’

‘He wants to take me on. He reckons he could get me a part in The Man From Heaven. They’re looking for an English actor. Isn’t that great? Isn’t that the best thing you ever heard?’

‘Yes,’ she mumbled. ‘Oh, yes, great.’

Two days later he’d left for Los Angeles.

‘I’ll stay in touch,’ he’d promised.

And he had-after a fashion. There were emails, texts, the odd phone call, but no invitation for her to follow him. He was slipping away from her, and she couldn’t let that happen. She had something urgent to tell him, something that couldn’t be told on the phone.