Being practical did help. It helped a lot. Instead of feeling at the mercy of ocean currents and winds she couldn’t influence at all, Kirsty began to feel more in control of her own life again. She stopped dithering. She took decisions. Even if she didn’t know where she was going in the long run, there were still things she could do right now. The first thing she did was exactly what Joyce had urged her to do. She put her mother’s house up for sale. The agent who valued it surprised her, suggesting a figure far higher than she’d expected. ‘Are you sure?’ she said dubiously. ‘Oh, yes. We’ve had a couple go around here in recent weeks. It’s a nice area, and people know it as such. You won’t have any difficulty selling this one.’ ‘It seems a lot of money.’ He laughed. ‘That’s an unusual point of view,’ he said. ‘Most people think they’ll be robbed if they sell at the price we value the house at.’ Mr.
