But her Russell is gone and that's so unfair Demelza can hardly stand it. She can't begin to imagine how Katie faces it every day when she has never even known the man and she finds her chest aching and her throat tight when she thinks of that loss.

Should it happen to her, she'll go on out of necessity. She'll push on for her children and she realizes in an instant that is what keeps Katie moving forward as well. Her Jamie.

"I think 'ee'd quite like Ross," she says. "He can be terribly rude to some, but tis only that he's not the sort of suffer fools. Surgeons, though... I mean doctors, especially doctors who are smart and who are always open to more learning, he quite likes them. Finds them very respectable. He'd not be rude to you."

And now that she's promised it, she must make sure it's true.