.

      1

      Welcome to Cannes in the month of May in the year 2010

      The day before she was due to fly to the South of France for the Cannes Film Festival, Anna Carson was in Somerset looking at a possible location for the latest film she was involved with as Production Designer.

      Marshland House lay at the end of a long drive flanked by flowering white rhododendron bushes. From the outside, the brick built Victorian mansion looked perfect for her purpose. The location agent had told her that the major part of the house was untouched since the nineteenth century and, importantly for the film, the basement kitchen still boasted its original fixtures.

      Anna parked her car and glanced at her watch. Fifteen minutes before the agent was due. Time enough for her to have a quick look around the grounds on her own and take some photographs. Apart from the set designer needing some, she knew Leo would want to see photographs of the house and its location. A smile touched her lips as she thought about Leo.

      Just over four months ago, she’d thought she was as happy as she was ever going to be. Falling in love at fifty-seven years old hadn’t been on her radar. Not that it ever had been. Her default setting since her particularly disastrous teenage years had been the old saying ‘Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ So instead of a husband and family, she had a successful career she enjoyed, her own home and money in the bank. If she’d ever felt that something was missing from her life, she’d firmly pushed the thought down and away. Everybody had regrets, didn’t they? You learned to live with them.

      Then, at a swanky London party on New Year’s Eve, mutual friends had introduced her to widower Leo Hunter. It was one of those rare occasions when two people connected, forming an instant friendship. Leo worked for one of the big five publishers and was intrigued by Anna’s job in the film industry. The noise of the party had faded into the background as they’d talked and discovered things they had in common. Two hours later when Big Ben struck and welcomed in the New Year,