‘A mite sore but I don’t complain. I’ve always had a high pain threshold. Anything to get out of tea duties. I hope you’re going to leave that to brew properly. I can’t stand any of that wishy washy stuff.’

‘I wouldn’t dare,’ Sam said.

A few minutes later, she carried the tea tray into the meeting room where Drew was asking Troy how he was managing with his sling. Sam exchanged a quick smile with Drew. She’d seen Evie at the post office the day before and she’d confessed that Troy had been ‘driving her up the wall’ asking for drinks, food and generally enjoying being fussed over and waited on, long after he really needed it. She’d told Sam she was thinking of buying him a bell that he could ring whenever he wanted service.

Chloe arrived, looking immaculate but not as bouncy as Sam had expected given her birthday party was the hot topic while the tea was made. Troy made a few jokes about ‘life beginning …’ and ‘bus passes’ and Drew joined in with the banter. Chloe smiled and threw a few comments back, but Sam thought she seemed on edge.

‘Much as I’d love to talk about my party all day, should we get down to business?’ Chloe asked with a smile that only partly softened the tension in her voice.

‘Good idea,’ Sam said. ‘But before we start, I just wanted to tell you we’ve had a few negative comments on the Facebook page.’

Zennor rolled her eyes. ‘I just saw the latest from Joe Bloggs. He’s pathetic,’ she said.

‘Don’t folk have better things to do?’ Troy grumbled.

‘Clearly not,’ Chloe said.

‘There’s nothing we can do about the Twitter comments except ignore them or block people,’ Zennor said. ‘Ben deletes the Facebook messages as soon as he sees them and I’ve just removed the latest. Anyone know who Joe Bloggs could be?’

Everyone shook their heads apart from Troy who suggested the new Methodist minister from Porthmellow Chapel, a timid young man who happened to be called Rupert Hartley-Bloggs. This resulted in peals of laughter before Sam suggested that he was an unlikely culprit and called the meeting to order so they could get on with the scarily long agenda.

With the festival now just over three weeks away, there was a sense of urgency and seriousness that hadn’t been there before, especially as this was set to be their biggest event ever. It never ceased to amaze Sam how the festival had grown from one day of local food stalls around the harbour to the massive undertaking it now was. She had no idea how she’d ever managed without Chloe.

Zennor and Ben gave their report on the latest publicity, which had now ramped up with ads and features appearing in the Cornish lifestyle magazines.