At sixteen, Katie still felt so much like a child. Losing her father didn't make her feel as though she'd grown up faster; it just made her feel small and alone. She can't imagine having set out on her own that young. But she can understand why Demelza did, her stomach tightening in empathy.

"You did what you had to," she says, nodding. "That was brave." It must have taken such strength, she thinks, to walk away and fend for herself. Sometimes that doesn't even seem like an option. "There's never any excuse for it, not really. My first husband was like that. Not just when he drank. He got into these awful moods, like he was someone else. But it was him."